Lagos Lawyer: ‘DSS Has Dented Dasuki’s Image’

 A Lagos-based legal practitioner, Oluwasegun Ojemuyiwa, on Tuesday morning spoke during a television programme, Sunrise Daily, saying it was legal for the Directorate of State Service (DSS) to search the home of the immediate past National Security Adviser (NSA), Col. Sambo Dasuki, but that the manner the security agents went about it amounted to injuring the rights of the former NSA. Here is an excerpt of the question and answer session.

The DSS has given reasons for going to search the home of NSA Sambo Dasuki and they believe what they did was within the law. So why the hue and cry?

I believe that with a search warrant, they are entitled to go into that premises and execute the warrant if they introduce themselves properly. Now, if you look at the search warrant itself, it states that they are there to look for incriminating materials, and I think that is not proper. When you want to execute a search warrant in my own opinion, you don’t say you would come into my house to look for incriminating materials, because if indeed you come into my house, you may actually find something like an acid. I may have a purpose for bringing the acid into my house, maybe to incinerate some documents. Now, acid is not something usually found in the house and the fact that you find it in my house does not mean that I actually want to commit a crime with it. Saying that you are looking for some weapons is okay, but saying you are looking for incriminating materials is too wide.

Are search warrants written in specific terms?

A search warrant does not necessarily state specifically what it is looking for. It is an order given by either a judge or magistrate to security agencies to effect or go into a particular place and conduct a search. What I read online is that the DSS were looking for some weapons or incriminating materials. The moment you state what you are looking for. I have read Dasuki’s side and the DSS story online. From the DSS story, that is what I got. It was from the DSS story that I got the hint of what they found.

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The DSS said it went to Dasuki’s home because of intelligence that he was planning a treasonable felony against the Nigerian state…

Even the constitution guarantees some freedoms. But even those freedoms are not absolute. The SSS has a right to obtain a search warrant and go to execute it, but my complaint is the way and manner it was executed. We are in a new regime and Nigerians voted for change because they want a departure from what it used to be. This man was the former NSA. If you have anything against him or for him, you should go about it minding the signal you were given. Sometime ago, I read online that there is a personal issue between him and the current President because he personally led the team that went to arrest the President when he was the military Head of State. And I believe the SSS has such information and should have just gone ahead and said: “look, let’s approach this guy with wisdom. Now, this guy’s tenure expired on Tuesday; you did not give him enough time. You should give him time to go home and return certain things in his custody because he must have been in possession of some items that ordinarily, he would not have in his possession if he was not the NSA. Have they given that time?

Were things like the riffles assigned to him in the first place?

In this age and era, there is what is called best practices. What the DSS did is legal, but I am faulting the unnecessary razzmatazz and siege. This man is not a small man, but a former NSA. So were there things that suggested that he was not going to comply? There was too much force. There is something called assault in law and you don’t need to touch me before you assault me. Coming to my house with two trucks of security agents does not portray me well. Even if at the end of the day I am found innocent, the fact that you came to my house in such a style is very intimidating. I think in a democratic era, such things should be discouraged. The constitution of Nigeria is supreme and there is a presumption of innocence till I’m found guilty. There is right to dignity and the NSA is a dignified person. I’m not quarrelling with the warrant of arrest, but the undue militarisation. What I am saying is that at this time of technology, you should have given him enough time to self-debrief and return things in his possession.

Are you discounting the fact that the DSS said it had credible intelligence?

When you get intelligence, you react with superior intelligence. What about you deploying unseen technology and personnel around him to the extent that you monitor him.

How do you think that was not what was done?

The man left office on a Tuesday and you are invading his house on Thursday.

How are search warrants executed?

The best practice is that you get to the person in charge of where you want to conduct the search, you introduce yourself and a respectable person, having discovered that this is valid, you would accompany them. A reason why a search warrant is not supposed to be executed in the absence of the owner is because it is not impossible that somebody purporting to be a security agent can come into your premises and, because you are not allowed to search them before they search your premises, they can plant evidence in your premises. So a wise security agent would ask the owner to follow them.

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How about in a case where you don’t honour them?

Obstructing a law enforcement agent from performing his duty is an offence. It is a crime in itself not to allow the agents with a search warrant duly granted by the court to execute same. At the point in time you get to a place to execute a search warrant and the person obstructs you, that person commits a crime.

In order words, Col. Dasuki should have been arrested?

Of course. That is what the constitution says. But invasion as given by the impression of people has no place in the Nigerian constitution.

How do we know if there are no facts in the allegation against Dasuki?

There are two parties to this issue. Therefore the right person to whom the issue should be placed is the judge. What Dasuki is saying at this point in time cannot be said to be fact. Also, what the DSS is saying at this point cannot be said to be fact. When the stories, as said by Dasuki and the DSS, are reduced into an affidavit and filed before a court, then they can now be taken as fact. I have never met Dasuki but I am saying the siege mentality has no place in the new Nigeria. I am not saying anyone is above arrest. I am saying when you want to discharge the obligation imposed on you by law, go about it with the impression that the other person, by law, is presumed innocent until found guilty. You must treat him with respect. Why can’t I arrest you and be most respectful at the same time? The way and manner the search was done does not give that man the respect he deserves.

 

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