Thursday, 9 November 2023

High Court grant bail to former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria

 



The Federal Capital Territory High Court in Abuja, on Wednesday, granted bail to the embattled former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele.

Mr Emefiele, who is facing months-long investigations over corruption allegations, attended Wednesday’s proceedings, after his last public appearance in court in August.

He was brought to court from the custody of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), based on an earlier order of the court.

Granting him bail on Wednesday, the judge, Olukayode Adeniyi, ordered that he be released to his three leading lawyers, who are all Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SANs).

The judge directed the senior lawyers to produce him in court for arraignment on 15 November. But details of the charges on which he is scheduled to be arraigned are not yet clear

The court also ordered him to submit all his travel documents to the court’s registrar.

The court gave the order in a ruling on the bail application which Mr Emefiele filed under his broader fundamental rights enforcement suit.

He filed the suit to challenge his almost five-month-long detention.

Ruling on the bail application, Mr Adeniyi held that the applicant had been detained beyond the legal limits.

He held that the detention was against the provision of section 46 (2) of the Nigerian constitution.

Although the constitution limits detention period of a suspect to maximum of 48 hours, the Nigerian law permits law enforcement agencies to extend the detention period with the permission of a court of law.

The Stare Security Service (SSS), which arrested Mr Emefiele on 10 June, claimed to have obtained a court order to prolong his detention, before recently transferring his custody to the EFCC to continue investigating the case against him.

But Mr Adeniyi ruled on Wednesday: ”There must be an end to number of days in detention.”

The judge added: ”The applicant is hereby released on bail to his lawyers, Matthews Burkaa, SAN, Magaji Ibrahim, SAN, and J J Usman, SAN.

”They must bring him to court on 15 November for his arraignment.

“Secondly, he must deposit his travelling documents with the registrar of the court.”

Mr Emefiele was arrested on 10 June, a day after being suspended from office over undisclosed corruption allegations.

Source: Premium Times  


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