A former National Security Adviser, Sambo Dasuki, has said that weapons found in his home last year belonged the NSA office.
A
Federal High Court in Abuja on Wednesday heard that the weapons found
at the Asokoro residence of Mr. Dasuki barely 48 hours after he left
office were for the use of his security details.
These were
contained in Mr. Dasuki’s statement made to the operatives of the State
Security Service, SSS, tendered and admitted as exhibit by Justice
Adeniyi Ademola in the ongoing trial of the former NSA on charges of
unlawful possession of arms.
A prosecution witness, Samuel Ogbu, who
is an operative of SSS stated this when he was asked to read in the open
court the statement made by Mr. Dasuki during his interrogation by the
SSS before he was charged to court.
Under cross-examination by
the counsel to Mr. Dasuki, Ahmed Raji, the witness said that Mr. Dasuki
in his statement confirmed that weapons were for the ONSA and for the
protection of the NSA.
The witness also said that Mr. Dasuki
claimed in his written statement that the weapons were to be returned to
the ONSA by the security details at the end of the day.
Mr. Ogwu
said he could not remember the date Mr. Dasuki left office as NSA but
however insisted that the interrogation was conducted after he had left
office.
Answering another question, the witness, who claimed to
have spent 34 years in the service, admitted that the NSA was entitled
to security details as the coordinator of activities of all security
agencies in the country.
The operative said that the SSS did not
issue the weapon to the former NSA, but said he would not know whether
the weapons were issued to Mr. Dasuki by the military authority.
Also
under cross-examination, the witness admitted that he had never been to
the armoury of the Nigerian Army, Airforce, Navy, Police, National
Intelligence Agency and DMI and would not know whether the weapons found
in Mr. Dasuki’s house were issued to him by any of the agencies.
“I
am aware that the Office of the NSA coordinates the activities of all
security agencies in this country comprising Police, Army, Airforce,
Navy, DSS, and DMI among others and my evidence in this trial relates
only to what happens in the DSS,” Mr. Ogwu said.
Earlier in his
evidence, the witness had claimed that the house of Mr. Dasuki was
searched based on intelligence report and that some weapons including
powerful rifles were hidden.
He said that as a follow-up to the
recovery, he was invited to participate in the interrogation of Mr.
Dasuki to know the ownership of the weapons and for what purposes they
were meant in the house.
The witness said that the interrogation
was freely conducted and fully recorded with electronic gadgets and that
Mr. Dasuki’s statement was also recorded when it was being made
voluntarily.
Led in evidence by the counsel to the Federal
Government, Dipo Okpeseyi, the witness said that the SSS decided to
interrogate the ex-NSA on the weapons because of their sophistication.
The
witness added that ordinarily such weapons were not usually issued to
ordinary individuals because of their capacities and that licence were
not usually issued to individuals to purchase or carry them.
Mr.
Ogwu told the court that parts of the guns, Tavor Assault Rifles, were
imported into the country by the Federal Government following the Boko
Haram.
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