Former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele
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As the legal battle to bail the former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria intensifies, the Justice Olukayode Adeniyi-led FCT High Court has ordered the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to produce him in Court without delay.
Emefiele has been in detention since he was removed from office, first in the Department of State Services, DSS and now in the EFCC facility as he is being investigated on financial misconduct allegation.
The judge ordered that the embattled CBN governor be produced on Wednesday, November 8, having not appeared before the honourable court on Monday, November 6.
The legal intensifies, after the Court granted Emefiele’s bail application on November 2, hearing, but which the anti-graft agency claimed that there was confusion in the interpretation of the Court order.
The claim surprised Justice Adeniyi and he re¬affirmed his order that Emefiele be either released on bail or be produced in court on Wednesday November 8, for the purpose of admitting him to bail, warning that flouting the order would attract the wrath of the Court.
At the resumed sitting on Monday, Emefiele through his counsel, Mathew Burkaa (SAN) had complained bitterly that the EFCC flouted the lawful order made since November 2.
The suit being a fundamental rights enforcement matter, Burkaa told Justice Adeniyi that his client had spent 149 days in the custody of the Federal Government agency since June 10, when he was first arrested by the operatives of the Department of the State Service (DSS).
When the court asked why the order was not obeyed, the EFCC lawyer, Farouk Abdalla admitted that his client was actually served with the release order.
Abdalla informed the court that the order could not be executed due to “slight confusion” observed in the order.
Justice Adeniyi who was visibly not happy, ordered the EFCC lawyer to read in the open court, Order 4 Rule 3 guiding the enforcement of fundamental hu-man rights suit.
The Judge said his order was unambiguous and was not predicated on any condition for the anti-graft agency to play with.
After apologizing, Abdalla assured that the EFCC would carry out the order.
The EFCC asked the court to hear its motion on notice but Justice Adeniyi ordered that the subsisting order must be first obeyed, before adjourning to November 8, for Emefiele to be unfailingly produced in court for the purpose of admitting him to bail.
Oyin Koleoso, who represented the Federal Government and the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), observed that some vital documents pleaded in the affidavit of Emefiele were not in the processes served on his clients made the court to order the plaintiff’s lawyer to rectify the anomalies before the adjourned date.
