Former National Security Adviser (NSA), Col. Sambo Dasuki, yesterday pleaded with President Muhammadu Buhari to allow him enjoy the bail granted him by the Federal High Court in Abuja, reports The Sun.

 

According to the report, counsel to Dasuki, Alhaji Ahmed Raji (SAN), said who spoke yesterday asked the president to listen to the courts and allow his Dasuki enjoy his bail. He said: “I would want to appeal to Mr. President to please allow my client to enjoy the bail that was granted to him. I want to beg him in the name of God. I cannot join words with the president. I have the greatest respect for him, both in his official and personal capacities. My appeal is just that I am begging him in the name of God to allow my client to enjoy his bail.”

 

However, a former President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Prince Lanke Odogiyan has faulted Buhari’s stand as he called it a manifestation of dictatorship. The president’s refusal to release Dasuki and Kanu, he warned, was a slide into lawlessness. He urged the NBA, human rights organisations and other non-governmental groups to call the president to order to prevent the nation from sliding into anarchy.

 

His words: “It’s disobedience of court order and if it’s not checked, it can lead to consequences beyond our imaginations. It’s a manifestation of dictatorial tendencies and it should not be encouraged. The president must be advised by his legal handlers. If he is not satisfied with an order of court, the appropriate thing to do is to appeal. But he can’t disobey it, he can’t ignore it.

 

“The Nigerian Bar Association, NGOs and human rights bodies will speak with one voice to call Mr. President to order. We have to be careful so that we don’t slide into anarchy. No government should pick and choose what orders to obey.”

 

Chief Ladi Rotimi-Williams (SAN), however, said the president was acting in the overall interest of the nation. “The president is at a vantage point to know what is good for the nation at any given time. Sambo Dasuki is a very powerful man and you don’t take such powerful men lightly.

 

“I am sure he (Buhari) has placed the interest of the nation over and above the interest of Sambo Dasuki, ditto for Kanu. He is not doing so because he doesn’t like their faces.”

The interest of the nation overrides everything else.”

 

Nigerians are still watching and observing the latest events as it unfolds. It is the veiw of many that the president should as a true democrat, respect the law of the land which is the constitution and avoid contempt of law by refusing to heed to court orders. The flagrant disobedience to the rule of law can only spell doom for our democracy.