The Federal High Court in Abuja has dismissed the request by the Department of the State Service DSS to tender unlisted exhibits against a former National Security Adviser NSA, Colonel Sambo Dasuki in the unlawful possession of arms trial.
Justice Peter Odo Lifu on Wednesday, refused to accept the tendering of the exhibits on the ground that they were not listed on the proof of evidence as required by law.
Delivering ruling in an application by the DSS to tender some bunches of vehicle keys allegedly recovered in the Abuja homes of Dasuki, the judge held that the application was unmeritorius because they were not listed as parts of the exhibits to be tendered.
He said that the DSS application ran foul of section 397 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act 2015 as well as sections 4, 5 and 6 of the Evidence Act.
The Judge recalled that on July 10 and October 14, 2025, he had delivered two considered rulings where he refused to admit some vehicles as exhibits because they failed admissibility examination.
Among others, the Judge held that the exhibits have no relevance to the trial while a proper foundation was not laid for their admission against the defendant.
According to the Judge, having rejected the vehicles to be admitted, it would be improper to admit their keys as requested by the DSS.
Justice Lifu agreed with lawyer to Dasuki, Mr A. A Usman that admitting the keys of the rejected vehicles would amount to blowing hot and cold, aprobate and reprobate at the same time which no court of law must condone.
“Apart from the fact that the bunch of the vehicle keys were not listed on the proof of evidence as required by law, the vehicles themselves have been outrightly rejected to be tendered as exhibits”, the Judge said.
Meanwhile, the Court has fixed December 1, 2 and 3 for continuation of trial especially to enable the DSS to present in court various money allegedly found in the house of the former military officer.
The long adjourned at the instance of the prosecution and the defense was adopted to enable DSS retrieve from the Central Bank of Nigeria the deposited currencies.
Justice Lifu, however, ordered the DSS lawyer to be prepared to close its case against Dasuki this year and for the former NSA to open his defense.
