• Main News
  • About Us
  • Contact
Premium Times Opinion
Wednesday, August 17, 2022
  • Home
  • Democracy and Governance
    • Bámidélé Upfront
    • Jibrin Ibrahim
    • Okey Ndibe
  • Economy
    • Ifeanyi Uddin
  • Issues of the Day
    • Adeolu Ademoyo
    • Aribisala on Tuesday
    • Dele Agekameh
    • Pius Adesanmi
  • Politics
    • Ebeneezer Obadare
    • Femi Fani-Kayode
    • Garba Shehu
    • Hannatu Musawa
    • Zainab Suleiman Okino
  • Guest Columns
  • Faith
    • Article of Faith
    • Sunday Ogidigbo
    • Friday Sermon
    • Elevated Sight
  • Home
  • Democracy and Governance
    • Bámidélé Upfront
    • Jibrin Ibrahim
    • Okey Ndibe
  • Economy
    • Ifeanyi Uddin
  • Issues of the Day
    • Adeolu Ademoyo
    • Aribisala on Tuesday
    • Dele Agekameh
    • Pius Adesanmi
  • Politics
    • Ebeneezer Obadare
    • Femi Fani-Kayode
    • Garba Shehu
    • Hannatu Musawa
    • Zainab Suleiman Okino
  • Guest Columns
  • Faith
    • Article of Faith
    • Sunday Ogidigbo
    • Friday Sermon
    • Elevated Sight
No Result
View All Result
Premium Times Opinion
Home Opinion

Sambo Dasuki: When the Big Fish Seeks to Swim to Escape, By Bayo Oluwasanmi

by Premium Times
November 26, 2015
Reading Time: 5 mins read
1

mohammed-sambo-dasuki

Now that Mr. Dasuki has realised that the net is closing in on him, he too has resorted to feigning illness. It is simply not plausible that this is a real sudden illness striking a major public figure. The fake illness is essentially to neutralise any further investigation; better still, to stall the case till the second coming of Christ. This is an act of desperation to escape justice.

It is not uncommon for cowards to stage different con tactics to escape all responsibilities for their criminal acts. The most popular and the most successful one is feigning illness.

Lu Xiang, a Chinese anti-graft prosecutor once told a Chinese Court that corrupt officials often fake illness to dodge trial. Since 2009, Lu Xiang has handled more than 90 major corruption cases, 17 of which involved bureau-level cadres, 19 at departmental level, and 47 cases involving people who had received one million yuan (about $1.26 million) or more in bribes.

Alan Knight and his wife Helen of Sketty, Swansea, UK came up with a cock-and-bull story to dodge justice. Knight tried to dodge trial for conning a vulnerable elderly neighbour out of his 41,000 British pounds savings after he was charged to court in September 2012. The wife Helen Knight, claimed her husband couldn’t stand trial because he was a quadriplegic.

She even wrote Prime Minister David Cameron to support her campaign for cops to drop fraud charges against her husband because he was in a coma. But police found Knight, 48, had been on family vacation and shopping trips during the two years when he was supposed to be in a coma. Alan and his wife were sent to jail for pretending Alan was in a “vegetative state” to escape trial. Alan was jailed for an extra 14 months in addition to a four-and-a-half year term for fraud.

In 2012 in the Philippines, Renato Corona, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the Philippines was convicted for failure to declare several high value assets including $2.4 million in foreign currency deposits on his Statement of Assets, Liabilities, and Net Worth (SALN). Corona’s vain attempt to feign illness did not succeed in securing his release. The Senate sitting as the Impeachment Court, voted 20 to convict and 3 to acquit. Corona was the first impeachable official to be successfully impeached and convicted in Philippine’s history.

V.D. Savarkar, the brain behind the failed attempt assassination of Mahatma Gandhi, on January 1948 escaped with an acquittal on the basis of feign illness.

Nigeria is a nation where the big fish swims to escape. Our history has shown that no high ranking Nigerian government official, minister, or senior political appointee has ever served commensurate prison time for corruption, while anti-corruption activists often face harassment and arrest.

It’s no secret that those the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) have successfully prosecuted in corruption scandals tend to be low-level public employees whose conviction is unlikely to change the way the system works. Cases against high-level officials and politicians tend not to proceed at all, or are, at best, stalled, largely due to political interference, intimidation, and the purchase of judges. Mr. Saraki’s case is a painful reminder of a big fish swimming undisturbed. These corrupt officials have one thing in common: they use their group’s commitment to self-preservation and self-promotion to their advantage, as a cover for their crimes.

The March 28 democratic revolution that brought President Muhammadu Buhari to power is fighting corruption terrorism on all fronts in Nigeria. The flamboyant former petroleum minister Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, former National Security Adviser Mr. Sambo Dasuki, and former EFCC Chairman Mr. Ibrahim Lamorde claim they are all too sick to face trial or scrutiny. Mrs. Alison-Madueke is “sick of breast cancer” and she’s receiving treatment in London, UK. For now, she cannot face trial at home. Mr. Lamorde jetted out of the country to escape appearing before the Senate committee on ethics, privileges, and public petitions a few days ago. He was accused of diversion of funds. His lawyer said he was abroad for medical treatment. Mr. Dasuki was not so lucky.

The claim that Mr. Dasuki is sick of cancer is a filthy lie. He’s not alone in the game to con 170 million Nigerians. These con artists operate through lies, vile deceptions, and murderous fraud. The evidence of their ‘illness’ is faked – and this is particularly revealed in the timing of their sickness.

Mr. Dasuki was first arrested in July by the State Security Service (SSS) after a prolonged siege to his Abuja home. He was charged to court with the illegal possession of firearms and for stealing $2 billion meant for military equipment to fight Boko Haram. Mr. Ahmed Raji (SAN), the lead attorney for Mr. Dasuki pleaded that his client’s passport be released to allow him to travel for three weeks for treatment of his “budding cancer.” Justice Adeniyi Ademola of the Federal High Court Abuja granted Mr. Dasuki’s request for his passport to be released to enable him receive treatment abroad.

Angry at the re-arrest of Mr. Dasuki after granting him his request to travel, Justice Ademola fumed: “Court order must be obeyed. What is wrong in the defendant traveling and coming back to face trial? Only a fit person can stand trial and investigation. My own orders will not be flouted”.

Now that Mr. Dasuki has realised that the net is closing in on him, he too has resorted to feigning illness. It is simply not plausible that this is a real sudden illness striking a major public figure. The fake illness is essentially to neutralise any further investigation; better still, to stall the case till the second coming of Christ. This is an act of desperation to escape justice.

The claim that Mr. Dasuki is sick of cancer is a filthy lie. He’s not alone in the game to con 170 million Nigerians. These con artists operate through lies, vile deceptions, and murderous fraud. The evidence of their ‘illness’ is faked – and this is particularly revealed in the timing of their sickness. Agreed, any one could fall sick at any time. Sickness doesn’t give short or long notices. Mr. Dasuki’s “sickness” is more of a planned, coached, and rehearsed excuse than a coincidence. It’s a cock-and-bull story!

How come throughout the Jonathan years when these suspects were junketing all over the world, building castles all over the place, stashing money in known and unknown bank accounts, wining and dining with the rich and the famous, they didn’t complain of mere headache, talk more of cancer? Dasuki’s story is simply not believable, not to any degree.

If the 86-year old former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak could stand trial on his hospital stretcher, there is no reason why any of the accused could not be brought to court dead or alive. As part of his war on corruption, President Buhari by executive power should stop all politicians from going overseas for medical treatment. They must be treated at home. After all, they are responsible for the sordid state of our healthcare. Many poor Nigerians die of cancer and other diseases everyday due to the lack of treatment. Let the wicked and corrupt politicians have a taste of the hemlock being forced down the throat of impoverished Nigerians.

There is every effort by some people, especially those who are related to Dasuki by way of treasury looting, to give credence to his fraud. For example, the star of EkitiGate, the ex-danfo driver governor of Ekiti State, Mr. Ayodele Fayose came to the defence of Dasuki: “The department of State Services (DSS) placement of former NSA under house arrest despite court order that his passport be released so that he can travel abroad for medical treatment is wicked, inhuman, dictatorial and a clear attempt to deny him of his rights to life as enshrined in the constitution of Nigerian.”

Nigerians, don’t be surprised to see Mr. Dasuki staring at us with those vicious, soul-less eyes, laughing in his gluttony while perfecting another concocted story to escape trial. Regardless of the outcome of corruption cases against the corrupt politicians who feign illness in order to flee from justice, their legacy is one of wretchedness and filthy corruption, whether dead, alive, or in limbo.

These wanton destroyers of our economy and of the common people are nothing other than cowards who would fake their death. It’s all as a means to ensure that they to escape any scrutiny and any trial for their high crimes against humanity.

bjoluwasanmi@gmail.com

Share this:

  • Tweet
  • Email
  • Print
  • More
  • Pocket
  • Share on Tumblr

Related

Previous Post

Towards the Resolution of the Kogi State Legal Crisis, By Femi Falana

Next Post

The Coming War, By Azu Ishiekwene

Related Posts

Zamfara Gold As Commonwealth, By Zailani Bappa
Opinion

Sheikh Gumi, Governor Matawalle and the Sands of Time, By Zailani Bappa

February 2, 2021
June 12 As Democracy Day Needs To Be Reconsidered, By Bashir Tofa
Opinion

The Need To Act Now To Stop the Ethnic Conflagration!, By Bashir Othman Tofa

February 2, 2021
Kofi Annan: In Service of the World, By Ejeviome Eloho Otobo & Oseloka H. Obaze
Opinion

Biden’s Likely Policy Orientation Toward Africa, By Ejeviome E. Otobo and Oseloka H. Obaze

February 2, 2021
Agenda for ‘Born Again’ JAMB and TETFUND, By Tunde Musibau Akanni
Opinion

Oyeweso, A Celebrated Historian, Ascends the Sixth Floor, By Tunde Akanni

February 2, 2021
Before Nigeria Burns, By Akin Fadeyi
Opinion

Is President Buhari Presiding Over the Last United Nigeria?, By Akin Fadeyi

February 2, 2021
On A Soyinka Prize In ‘Illiteracy’, By Biko Agozino
Opinion

Obasanjo: Only Those Who Did Not Do Well Went Into the Military, By Biko Agozino

February 1, 2021
Next Post
Azu Ishiekwene

The Coming War, By Azu Ishiekwene

Three Months and Counting…  By Amma Ogan

Nineteen months and counting…, By Amma Ogan

Editorial

  • EDITORIAL: The Urgency of Tackling Nigeria’s Second Wave of COVID-19

    EDITORIAL: The Urgency of Tackling Nigeria’s Second Wave of COVID-19

  • EDITORIAL: Unearthing the Cogent Lessons In the NESG-CBN Economic Policy Imbroglio

    EDITORIAL: Unearthing the Cogent Lessons In the NESG-CBN Economic Policy Imbroglio

  • EDITORIAL: COVID-19: Calling On Nigeria’s Billionaires and Religious Leaders To Step Up

    EDITORIAL: COVID-19: Calling On Nigeria’s Billionaires and Religious Leaders To Step Up

  • EDITORIAL: Bichi Must Go; Buhari Must Halt Slide Into Despotism

    EDITORIAL: Bichi Must Go; Buhari Must Halt Slide Into Despotism

  • EDITORIAL: The Flaws In Governor Emefiele’s Five-Year Plan For Central Bank of Nigeria

    EDITORIAL: The Flaws In Governor Emefiele’s Five-Year Plan For Central Bank of Nigeria

Subscribe to our Opinion articles via email

Enter your email address to get notifications of new opinion articles as they are published.

Join 526,543 other subscribers

Most Popular

  • The Bad Consequences and Dangers of Adultery and Fornication (Zina) In Islam, By Murtadha Gusau
    The Bad Consequences and Dangers of Adultery and Fornication (Zina) In Islam, By Murtadha Gusau
  • World Teachers Day and The Position of Teachers In Islam, By Murtadha Gusau
    World Teachers Day and The Position of Teachers In Islam, By Murtadha Gusau
  • The Women Prohibited For Men To Marry In Islam, By Murtadha Gusau
    The Women Prohibited For Men To Marry In Islam, By Murtadha Gusau
  • Showing Gratitude To Allah For His Bounties, Blessings and Favours, By Murtadha Gusau
    Showing Gratitude To Allah For His Bounties, Blessings and Favours, By Murtadha Gusau
  • Islam and the Conditions For Marrying More Than One Wife, By Murtadha Gusau
    Islam and the Conditions For Marrying More Than One Wife, By Murtadha Gusau
  • You Will Be Held Responsible On What Happened To Your Children!, By Murtadha Gusau
    You Will Be Held Responsible On What Happened To Your Children!, By Murtadha Gusau
  • The Importance Of Keeping Secrets In Islam, By Murtadha Gusau
    The Importance Of Keeping Secrets In Islam, By Murtadha Gusau

Like us on Facebook

Like us on Facebook

Podcasts

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

  • Main News
  • About Us
  • Contact

© 2022 JNews - Premium WordPress news & magazine theme by Jegtheme.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Democracy and Governance
    • Bámidélé Upfront
    • Jibrin Ibrahim
    • Okey Ndibe
  • Economy
    • Ifeanyi Uddin
  • Issues of the Day
    • Adeolu Ademoyo
    • Aribisala on Tuesday
    • Dele Agekameh
    • Pius Adesanmi
  • Politics
    • Ebeneezer Obadare
    • Femi Fani-Kayode
    • Garba Shehu
    • Hannatu Musawa
    • Zainab Suleiman Okino
  • Guest Columns
  • Faith
    • Article of Faith
    • Sunday Ogidigbo
    • Friday Sermon
    • Elevated Sight

© 2022 JNews - Premium WordPress news & magazine theme by Jegtheme.

This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this website you are giving consent to cookies being used. Visit our Privacy and Cookie Policy.
 

Loading Comments...