Court dismisses DSS bid to re-present rejected exhibits against Dasuki

Justice Peter Odo Lifu of the Federal High Court, Abuja, has dismissed a request by the Department of State Services (DSS) to re-present for admission a series of exhibits earlier rejected by the court in the trial of former National Security Adviser (NSA), Col. Sambo Dasuki (rtd), over alleged unlawful possession of firearms.

Delivering his ruling on Tuesday, Justice Lifu held that the exhibits, having been previously rejected and marked as such for lack of proper foundation and relevance, “stood and remained rejected.”

The judge described the DSS’s attempt to have them re-admitted as “an invitation to judicial rascality and pettiness,” adding that granting the request would amount to the court sitting as an appellate body over its own decision.

“I recall that on July 10, 2025, I delivered a considered ruling rejecting the same sets of exhibits due to improper foundation for their admission and lack of relevance to the charge. That ruling still subsists, and I am bound by it,” Justice Lifu stated.

“Any attempt to go against that ruling will amount to judicial rascality and pettiness. Common sense does not even support granting this kind of request. The court rejects the invitation, and the request is hereby dismissed.”

The DSS’s lead counsel, Oladipupo Okpeseyi (SAN), had at the September 25 proceedings urged the court to move its sitting to the DSS headquarters in Abuja to inspect vehicles allegedly recovered from Dasuki’s residence during a 2015 search.

He said the vehicles had been parked at the DSS facility for nearly a decade and sought their admission as exhibits against the defendant.

However, when reminded that the same items had earlier been rejected and marked as such, Okpeseyi argued that he had now properly laid the foundation for their re-admission, claiming they were initially rejected only on procedural grounds and not for lack of relevance.

In his objection, Dasuki’s counsel, A.A. Usman, described the application as “strange and unknown to law,” insisting that once an exhibit is rejected by a court, it remains rejected.

He maintained that Justice Lifu could not revisit his earlier decision, stressing that the only lawful option available to the DSS was to appeal the ruling.

Usman urged the court to dismiss the application, describing it as “baseless, ill-conceived, and an attempt to draw the hand of the clock backward.”