LAWYER to the former National Security Adviser(NSA), Colonel Sambo Dasuki (rtd) Mr. Ahmed Raji has debunked last week’s claim by the Federal Government that his client was a fugitive, stressing that he lawfully retired from Nigerian Army.

Speaking Sunday in Abuja, Raji noted that Dasuki legally left the Army in 1994 and his exit officially gazetted by the Federal Government through the former Head of State, General Abdulsalami Abubakar in 1999.

Raji who was responding to an allegation that the former NSA was a fugitive and being currently held by the Department of State Service (DSS) on alleged breach of Army Service Rules, added that the allegation was a concocted lie to confuse the court as the prosecution has no answer to the well-grounded objection raised by the defence.

The lawyer claimed that “the allegation of being a fugitive against Dasuki cannot hold water or stand in the face of the law in view of the official gazette of the Federal Government that confirmed his retirement from the military.

“It is curious that the prosecution counsel who initially claimed ignorance of the reason behind the denial of bail is now coming up with these excuses. I am tempted to believe that my learned friend Mr. Rotimi Jacob must be genuinely mixing up facts or must have mistaken the identity of Dasuki”.

The lawyer further added that “the allegation is baseless, unwarranted and malicious because his exit was in the gazette of the Federal government.

We accordingly urge those holding Dasuki in custody in flagrant disobedience to the court order that granted him bail to have a rethink and respect the rule of law”.

A counsel to Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Jacobs, in the trial of Dasuki on alleged money laundering, last Thursday, told Justice Husseini Baba Yusuf that Dasuki was being detained by DSS in spite of the bail granted him by the judge because of his past in the military.