Court Dismisses DSS Bid To Re-Admit Rejected Exhibits Against Dasuki

The Federal High Court successful Abuja, connected Tuesday, rejected an exertion by the Department of State Services (DSS) seeking to re-present exhibits antecedently rejected successful the proceedings of erstwhile National Security Adviser (NSA), Col. Sambo Dasuki (rtd), implicit alleged unlawful possession of firearms.

Delivering his ruling, Justice Peter Lifu held that the tribunal could not revisit oregon admit the aforesaid exhibits it had earlier declared inadmissible, describing the DSS’s effort arsenic an invitation to “judicial rascality and pettiness.”

“I callback that connected July 10, 2025, I delivered a considered ruling rejecting the aforesaid sets of exhibits owed to improper instauration for their admittance and deficiency of relevance to the charge. That ruling inactive subsists, and I americium bound by it,” Justice Lifu said.

“Any effort to spell against that aforesaid ruling volition magnitude to judicial rascality and pettiness. Common consciousness does not adjacent enactment granting this benignant of request. This tribunal rejects the invitation, and the petition is hereby dismissed,” helium added.

The exhibits successful question, marked arsenic items 18 to 28 connected a 2015 hunt warrant, were recovered from Dasuki’s residence successful Abuja during a raid by the DSS.

At the erstwhile proceeding connected September 25, DSS pb counsel, Oladipupo Okpeseyi, SAN, had urged the tribunal to determination its proceedings to the agency’s office to inspect the vehicles allegedly seized from Dasuki’s residence, noting that they had been parked determination for a decade.

Okpeseyi argued that the bureau present sought to tender the aforesaid items aft laying a “proper foundation” for their admission, insisting that their earlier rejection was not based connected irrelevance but connected procedural grounds.

“The rejection was not based connected irrelevance to the trial,” helium told the court, maintaining that the deficiencies cited successful the earlier ruling had present been addressed.

However, Dasuki’s counsel, A. A. Usman opposed the motion, calling it “strange and chartless to law.”

“Once an grounds has been rejected and marked arsenic such, it stands rejected and cannot beryllium re-admitted by the aforesaid court,” Usman argued.
He added that “the lone lawful measurement unfastened to the DSS was to entreaty the earlier ruling, not to invitation the aforesaid justice to beryllium arsenic an appellate tribunal implicit his ain decision.”

Describing the exertion arsenic “baseless, ill-conceived, misplaced, and unwarranted,” Usman urged the tribunal to disregard it, saying it was simply “a ploy to crook backmost the hands of the clock.”

In his ruling, Justice Lifu upheld the defence’s position, stressing that the rejected exhibits remained inadmissible.

“The exhibits stay rejected,” helium declared, reaffirming that the tribunal would not revisit settled issues under any guise.