Human rights lawyer, Mr. Femi Falana (SAN) has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to ignore the ‘reckless’ campaign against the prosecution of former National Security Adviser, Sambo Dasuki and the Chairman of Daar Communications, Chief Raymond Dokpesi in the alleged $2.1bn arms purchase fraud.
In a statement, Falana said Buhari should ignore allegations by some lawyers that that the order obtained by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission from a magistrate court to detain some of the suspects for 14 days had no legal basis.
He said “As corruption is already mobilising to fight back, the Buhari administration should ignore the reckless campaign of calumny of certain people, who have lost their sense of shame.
“The anti-graft agencies should disregard the cheap blackmail, speed up the investigation and charge all indicted suspects to court while the courts are enjoined to conduct the trial of the suspects under the ACJA, which requires that the trials be conducted day by day.
He said any individual found guilty in the arms purchase fraud has committed a crime against humanity.
He said “The total missing fund is $6bn. In the light of the earth-shaking and ear-aching revelations oozing out of the EFCC to the effect that a handful of individuals cornered and shared the huge fund earmarked for the procurement of military hardware to prosecute the war on terror, all the convicted military officers and soldiers, who have been convicted, including the 70 who were sentenced to death, should be released forthwith.
“As I have repeatedly maintained, the soldiers were committed and sentenced to death for asking for weapons to fight the terrorists. They were ordered to fight with unserviceable equipment on the grounds that there was no money to purchase new weapons. In the process, the well-equipped insurgents routed and massacred thousands of the country’s ill-equipped soldiers due to the diversion of the fund set aside to purchase equipment.
“The suspects must bear full responsibility for committing such grave crimes against humanity. Consequently, pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act, 2011, we have applied for a certified true copy of the report of the arms procurement panel with a view to ensuring that some of the suspects are prosecuted by the Special Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity.”
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