A federal high court sitting in Abuja on Tuesday quashed the suit against Godwin Emefiele, governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), in relation to the arms purchase affair.
John Tsoho, the presiding judge, dismissed the suit seeking the prosecution of the CBN governor following the decision of the plaintiff to withdraw it.
The suit – filed by Ezenwa Ibegbunam on behalf of Achilike Anderson, Uchenna Nnadi, Ohazuruike Tochukwu, Fatima Musa, Olamide Buba, Hassan Haruna, Elochukwu Nweke, Amina Abubakar, Eroni Ada and Joy Moses – was dismissed after the plaintiff sought to discontinue the case.
Earlier in the year, a consortium of 10 lawyers filed a suit against Emefiele for what they called a “flagrant abuse of financial regulations, lacking in due process and therefore illegal and unlawful”.
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In the suit file, Emefiele was alleged to have been complicit “in offences of money laundering, unlawful, illegal and fraudulent direct cash payment to the Office of the National Security Adviser via a letter dated November 26, 2014 referenced: NSA/366/S”.
The defendants in the suit were President Muhammadu Buhari, the Nigerian senate, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the CBN governor.
The plaintiff earlier prayed the court to declare “the act of the first defendant (Emefiele) in making direct cash payment in various sums of money to the Office of the NSA under the cover of ‘special services’ in excess of the authorised limit cash payment and without giving the requisite report in writing within seven days to the third defendant (EFCC) constitutes a gross abuse of and misconduct in relation to the discharge of his duties”.
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The controversial arms deal remains a subject of series of court cases at the centre of which is an alleged $2.2bn scandal involving Sambo Dasuki, former national security adviser.
However, Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo declared over the weekend that the Goodluck Jonathan government wasted as much as $15bn on fraudulent procurement of arms.
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