The Federal High Court in Abuja has rejected an application by the Department of State Services, DSS, seeking to re-admit exhibits earlier dismissed in the ongoing trial of former National Security Adviser, Col. Sambo Dasuki.
Delivering his ruling on Tuesday, Justice Peter Lifu described the DSS’s attempt to re-present previously rejected evidence as legally untenable and a threat to judicial integrity.
He reaffirmed that the exhibits, which had been marked as inadmissible in a prior ruling, “remain rejected” for lack of relevance and proper legal foundation.
The motion, filed by DSS counsel Oladipupo Okpeseyi, SAN,sought to reintroduce items numbered 18 to 28 on the search warrant executed at Dasuki’s residence in 2015.
Okpeseyi argued that the exhibits—allegedly vehicles recovered during the search—were critical to the prosecution’s case and that their initial rejection was due to procedural lapses, not irrelevance.
He further urged the court to revisit its earlier decision, claiming that “a proper foundation has now been laid.”
The DSS counsel even proposed that the court move its proceedings to the DSS headquarters, where the vehicles had been kept for a decade, to inspect and admit them as fresh evidence.
However, Dasuki’s lawyer, A.A. Usman, vehemently opposed the motion, describing it as “strange and unknown to Nigerian law.”
Usman contended that once an exhibit is rejected and marked accordingly, the same court cannot reverse its position.
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He added that the proper channel for the DSS to challenge the ruling was through an appeal, not by asking the trial court to act as an appellate body over its own decision.
Justice Lifu, in his judgment, agreed with Dasuki’s counsel, stressing that the court’s July 10, 2025, ruling on the matter was final.
He maintained that attempting to revisit that decision would amount to “judicial rascality and pettiness,” which the court would not entertain.
“Common sense does not even support granting this kind of request,” the judge remarked pointedly. “Any attempt to go against the earlier ruling will be a mockery of justice.”
The ruling is the latest in a series of courtroom confrontations between the DSS and Dasuki, who has faced multiple charges since 2015 relating to alleged illegal possession of firearms and misappropriation of funds.
With this decision, the court has effectively shut down any further attempt by the DSS to reintroduce the disputed evidence in the long-running case.
Punch
