The Federal High Court in Abuja has struck out an application by the detained National Security Adviser (NSA), Sambo Dasuki, seeking an order setting aside the subpoena directing him to appear in court to testify on behalf of a former National Publicity Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party, Mr. Olisa Metuh.
The trial judge, Justice Okon Abang, ruled that having been ordered by the Court of Appeal in Abuja on September 29, 2017, he lacked jurisdiction to hear and determine the motion on merit.
He held that determining the motion on merit would amount to an attempt to review the judgment of a higher court, the Court of Appeal.
He held that all issues raised by Dasuki, through his lawyer,Mr. Ahmed Raji (SAN), had become academic since the court lacked jurisdiction to hear the complaints.
According to the judge, it would amount to “judicial anarchy” to hear Dasuki’s application on merit.
“If the applicant(Dasuki) is dissatisfied, he should know what to do and where to go, but certainly not this court,” the judge ruled.
But Dasuki, despite the subpoena issued on him upon Metuh’s application directing the Department of State Service to produce the detainee, is absent from court on Wednesday.
Former President Goodluck Jonathan also ordered by the court to appear in court upon an application by Metuh was also absent.
But a court registrar confirmed to the judge on Wednesday that Jonathan had yet to be served with the subpoena by the court bailiff as of Tuesday.
But the Department of State Service in whose custody Dasuki is detained has yet to produce the ex-NSA in court.
The judge had announced in court on Tuesday that he had, on Monday, issued a subpoena to be served on Jonathan.
But the judge, who fixed Wednesday (today) for his ruling on Dasuki’s motion, had ordered that both the ex-NSA and Jonathan must appear in court on Wednesday(today).
The two men were summoned by the court upon an application by Metuh requesting that they be ordered to testify in his defence with respect to the sum of N400m which he was said to have received fraudulently from the Office of the NSA in 2014. – Punch.
