Godwin Emefiele vs FG: Court adjourns till Aug 15

A Federal High Court sitting in Lagos, yesterday, adjourned till August 15, 2023, to hear the application by suspended Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Mr Godwin Emefiele, seeking to stop his prosecution by the Federal Government.

The court will, on the same day, hear the application by the Federal Government, through the Ministry of Justice seeking, leave to appeal the bail granted Emefiele by the court.

Emefiele was arraigned before Justice Nicholas Oweibo on July 25, following a charge of illegal possession of firearms brought against him by Department of State Service, DSS. He was granted bail by the court and ordered to be remanded in prison custody pending when he perfacts him bail.

But he was rearrested by DSS same day.

At the hearing in the fresh application by Emefiele, yesterday, in which he was seeking to stop his further procesution, following an earlier court judgment declaring his arrest and arraignment illegal, Justice Oweibo, adjourned to the new date, to enable the defence to reply to the prosecution’s further counter affidavit, which was served on the defence in court just before the proceedings began.

In a short ruling on which of the applications to take first, the judge noted that the application of the prosecution had been concluded and was ripe for hearing but that since the defence has not responded to the further counter affidavit served on them in court, it was better the applications were taking together.

The court then adjourned till August 15 to hear all applications.

Emefiele in his fresh application is asking for an order prohibiting the complainant from further prosecuting the instant charge or any other charge against him or seeking any form of indulgence before the court, inclusive of the application to grant leave to appeal against the order granting the appellant bail and other ancillary orders.

He also wants the court to discharge him from the instant charge which can not be lawfully prosecuted by the complainant, who was in brazen disobedience of subsisting orders of the court made on July 25, 2023.

Emefiele further asked the court for an order to stay further proceedings in the present charge until he exhausts all the remedies available to him in law to compel the government to obey the order of the court admitting him to bail or remanding him in the custody of the Nigerian Correctional Centre until he perfects his bail terms.

Emefiele is further contending that an order until set aside, remains valid for all intents and purposes, with reference to that made on July 25, admitting him to bail and remanding him in prison custody, untill he perfects the bail.

He is arguing, “That the complainant having brazenly defied the orders of court made on July 25, is in contempt of the proceedings of the court.

“Until the complainant complies with the afore-described subsisting orders of the court, it cannot continue to lawfully prosecute the charge neither can it be afforded any right of audience in any court in Nigeria.”