Undoubtedly Sambo Dasuki is presently undergoing a very difficult and harrowing experience and that may last for a very long time to come. He had been relieved of his prestigious appointment as the most influential National Security Advisor (NSA), ever produced in the annals of Nigeria and is currently undergoing trial in the court of the masses over his past misdeed which attracted accusations of very serious felony which may earn him a very serious penalty. The retired Colonel is now reaping where he had sown and is apparently not well pleased with that development.
Sambo Dasuki was initially employed by erstwhile President Goodluck Jonathan as his security advisor, but he later abandoned that responsibility and plunged head-on into the uncertain river of Nigeria’s partisan politics. Sambo was alleged to be a mole of foreign interests in the military and was said to be working towards frustrating the aspirations and objectives of his people. Sambo Dasuki had obviously overstepped his bounds, becoming the chief promoter of ex-president Jonathan’s political ambition and eventually doubling as his major henchman.
That was how Sambo played a reprehensible role in the sustained attempt to subdue Boko Haram terrorists during which the service chiefs he had led astray were roundly indicted for their seeming inability to contain the protracted insurrection and arrest its spread to other vulnerable parts of the country. The huge amount of money budgeted annually for routing the terrorists appeared to have gone down the drain since the armaments and the equipment purportedly bought were nowhere to be seen, leaving the vulnerable men to the mercy of the well-equipped terrorists.
The war commanders, in cohort with Sambo Dasuki, had preferred to pander to political sentiments rather than exhibiting the high standards or character expected of members of a highly trained profession. The highpoint of that transgressions was Sambo’s trip to London ostensibly to deliver a lecture at the famous Chatham House intended to expose the ridicule the country’s electoral commission, INEC and to express disapproval with what he called its unacceptable state of preparedness for the February general elections, soliciting a six-week shift. Sambo and his co-conspirators in the armed forces later supported what Sambo had solicited.
Although Sambo and his associates have had their way with the delayed elections, the masses of Nigeria had their say, overwhelmingly rejecting their preferred candidate and endorsed the one rejected by the military. Eventually the new master also rejected them as his service chiefs, subjecting them to fathomless degree of uncertainty and a grim probability of probing their activities while in office.
Officers of the Department of State Security DSS, armed with valid search warrants stormed the two houses belonging to Sambo Dasuki in Abuja and his father’s residence in Sokoto on the eve of Id el-fitr, and tried unsuccessfully for several hours to conduct search in the property where Sambo was domiciled. He had the military sentries illegally drafted to guard his residents to shoot anybody who came close to the building without any hesitation. The charged atmosphere his resistance had created was only doused by sensible military officers, sent there by the new Chief of Army Staff.
The search was actually carried out to confirm the charges of treasonable felony against Sambo Dasuki based on credible intelligence report linking him with an alleged plot to commit felony against the Nigerian State. The search was thoroughly conducted, and several items recovered, some of which extremely incriminating. These include seven highly caliber rifles, several magazines and military related gears. The search team also recovered twelve new vehicles, out of which five were bullet-proof. They were all retrieved from his residence, having failed to produce any evidence of ownership. In addition, the sum of forty-thousand US dollars, about ten million Naira, was found on him.
These expensive, exotic cars, including the armored vehicles, suspected to have been procured with tax payers’ money, were alleged to be kept for possible sinister ventures. The DSS officials were not on witch hunting mission but to act in pre-empting individuals with penchant for impunity and lawlessness from putting back the nation to dark days of yesteryears.
It is quite instructive to note that the dangerous weapons and the expensive vehicles recovered did not form part of Sambo’s handover notes and nobody could fathom what a retired National Security Advisor could be doing with destructive weapons and unassailable cars which, put together, could disrupt the fragile peace in any part of Nigeria. Meanwhile, the DSS has already barred Sambo Dasuki from travelling abroad having impounded his passports during the siege of his residence.
Although Sambo has threatened to go to court over what he called infringement of his privacy in a brazen attempt to blackmail him, the nation now anxiously awaits the outcome of the search in his residence and what may likely happen there after. It is hoped that the DSS will continue to use all constitutional means at its disposal to secure the country and deal decisively with those intent on breaching the peace through the imaginary hold they believe they have on our nation.
