Emefiele asks court to declare arrest, detention illegal

Godwin Emefiele, suspended governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), has asked the federal capital territory (FCT) court to declare his arrest and detention illegal. 

On June 9, President Bola Tinubu suspended Emefiele and asked him to transfer his responsibilities to Folashodun Adebisi Shonubi, deputy governor, operations directorate.

The day after, the Department of State Services (DSS) announced that Emefiele was in its custody for “some investigative reasons”.

Emefiele has been in DSS custody since early June, with the service insisting that it obtained a valid court order to keep him.

With the originating motion on notice marked CV/65/88 and filed on June 22, Emefiele through his lawyer, Peter Abang, prayed the court for an order “setting aside, quashing, invalidating and nullifying the arrest, detention of the applicant (Emefiele) for being illegal and a nullity”.

The lawyer premised his request on the grounds that a subsisting order of an FCT high court in Garki, barred the EFCC from arresting Emefiele over allegations bordering on “acts of financing terrorism, fraudulent activities and economic crimes of national security dimension”.

The order was delivered on December 29 by M. Hassan, FCT high court judge, in suit FCT/HC/GAR/CV/41/2022.

Emefiele also prayed that the court set aside the arrest and detention warrant obtained by the DSS.

He also prayed the court for an injunction “restraining the respondents whether by themselves, agents, officers, staff, privies … from arresting, detaining, further detaining or proceeding against, breaching or interfering with the applicant’s rights to personal liberty and freedom of movement or taking any other steps against Godwin Emefiele in furtherance of or in connection with any allegation of terrorism financing, fraudulent practices, money laundering, round tripping, threat to national security”.

Lastly, the suspended CBN governor prayed for an order of injunction mandating the DSS to release him.

However, at the court session, Bello Kawu, presiding judge, refused to grant all the reliefs sought.

The judge acknowledged that the DSS obtained a detention order twice from a magistrate court to detain Emefiele.

He however noted that Emefiele’s continued detention is illegal since the warrant obtained by the security service expired on July 10.

Consequently, the judge ordered the DSS to charge the suspended governor within two days or free him.

On Thursday, the DSS disclosed that it has charged Emefiele to court, following a ruling by another FCT high court in Maitama.

Editor’s note: This report has been modified based on new information about the ruling.