Emefiele’s arraignment stalled, court adjourns to Aug 23

The arraignment of Godwin Emefiele, suspended governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), has been adjourned to August 23.

The arraignment which was initially scheduled for Thursday, was stalled due to the absence of some of the defendants joined in the charge.

Emefiele who was present in court, was charged alongside Sa’adatu Yaro, a female CBN employee, and her company, April1616 Investment Limited, on 20 charges bordering on procurement fraud, conspiracy and conferring corrupt advantages.

On July 25, he was arraigned on a two-count charge bordering on “illegal possession” of firearms at a federal high court in Ikoyi and was granted bail in the sum of N20 million.

Nicholas Oweibo, the judge, had ordered that Emefiele be kept in the custody of the Nigeria Correctional Service (NCoS) pending the fulfilment of his bail conditions.

But the DSS insisted that Emefiele must return to its custody — a development that led to the face-off between the secret police and prison officials.

After the face-off, DSS rearrested Emefiele on the court premises.

The secret service proceeded to file an application before a high court of the federal capital territory seeking to further detain the suspended CBN governor.

The application was struck out after it was withdrawn by the service over jurisdictional concerns.

On August 3, the federal government also filed an application before the federal high court in Lagos, seeking leave to appeal against the order granting bail to Emefiele.

On August 15, the federal government made an oral application to withdraw the charge of “illegal possession of firearms” against Emefiele.