It was a reenactment of theatre of the absurd at the Federal High Court. Ikoyi, Lagos on Tuesday, when the Department of Secret Service brought former Central Bank Governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, to court to face a two-count charge of possession of firearms, after six weeks in its custody with the Court granting him bail. But, not satisfied with the ruling, the men of the DSS, some of them in hoods, rearrested him within the premises of the Court, manhandling a senior official of the Correctional Services in the process.

Mr. Emefiele had pleaded not guilty to the offence, leading to legal fireworks between the prosecutors and defence counsels, with Justice Nicholas Oweibo granting him bail for the sum of N20 million and other liberal terms like provision of surety on the same sum, and an order to be in the custody of the Correctional Services until he was able to perfect his bail conditions.

But the DSS was not ready to let him off the hook and made attempts to rearrest him in the Court leading to his lawyers laying allegations before the Court. But men of the DSS would not have any of that and laid an ambush for him withing the premises shuffling away men of the Correction Services who wanted to take custody of him as directed by the Court. A senior Official of the Correctional Services was manhandled and his uniform torn in the process.

Before today, different Courts have given orders to the DSS on Mr. Emefiele. An Abuja High Court had ruled that the DSS should either charge him to Court or set him free. It was the judgemnet and pressure from different groups including Lawyers who urged the DSS to respect the rule of law that led to the arraignment of Mr. Emefiele in Court today.

The suspended CBN governor was arraigned before Justice Nicholas Oweibo on two counts of possession of a firearm which is a single-barrel shotgun (JOJEFF MAGNUM 8371) without a license contrary to Section 4 of the Firearms Act, 2004, and punishable under Section 27 (1b) of the same Act.

In the second charge, Emefiele was also accused of possessing 123 rounds of live ammunition (cartridges) without a license, which is contrary to Section 8 of the Firearms Act 2004 and punishable under Section 27 (1)(b)(il) of the same Act.

Having pleaded not guilty, Emefiele, through his lawyer, Joseph Daudu (SAN) applied for bail before the judge on self recognizance basis with the assurance that his client is a renowned banker who did not have the intention of traveling out of the country and that there is no opposing affidavit from the federal government to his application.

Mr Daudu also described the DSS as Emefiele’s oppressors with prayers to the court to end his oppression in the custody of the secret services where he has been kept for the past 46 days.

Opposing the application, Ms Nkiru Jones Nebo, the deputy director of prosecution at the office of the Attorney General told the court to decline the application on the grounds that the defendant has refused to hand over his passport and that the government was not duly notified of the bail application filed by the defendant.

The prosecutor also warned the court that the suspended governor of the CBN is a powerful man who has the power to intimidate the witnesses. “Granting him bail will intimidate the prosecution witnesses who have come forward to give evidence. He can evade trial based on his antecedents. We urge the court to dismiss the bail application”, she said.

However, Justice Oweibo was not convinced by the argument of the prosecutor, holding that evidence showed that the prosecuting team had received the bail application at the appropriate time. He also maintained that the charges against the suspended CBN governor are bailable offences.

Granting the bail application, Justice Oweibo highlighted Emefiele’s bail conditions, which include a level 16 civil servant surety with a landed property within the court jurisdiction and an affidavit of means. “The surety must be the owner of landed property within the jurisdiction of the court, who must not be less than level 16 in the Nigerian civil service,” the judge said.

The judge further ordered that Emefiele be remanded in Prison Custody as against the prayer of the prosecutor that he should be returned to DSS Custody pending the perfection of his bail. He also ordered the embattled suspended CBN governor to submit his international passport to the court as the trial progresses.

Drama As DSS Re-Arrests Emefiele in Court Premises After Clashing with NCS

Despite the court order from Judge Nicholas Oweibo that Mr. Emefiele should be kept in the custody of the Nigerian Correctional Service pending the perfection of his bail conditions, the DSS has re-arrested the suspended apex bank head.

The drama began when the DSS operatives insisted that they would take Mr Emefiele back to their detention as opposed to the court’s ruling, this led to a fight between the prison officials who claimed to have a standing order to keep him in their custody. After a long clash between the two Operatives, the prison officials left the court premises without the suspended apex bank head, giving the DSS the chance to drag Mr. Emefiele into their custody.

It would be recalled that candidate of the African Action Congress Omoyele Sowore was also re-arrested in a similar style by DSS in the court premise after his bail was granted in December 2019.

Emefiele Vs DSS

There has been no love lost between the suspended CBN governor and the secret service since last year when the DSS attempted to arrest him on the allegations that he was financing terrorism. However, the courts stalled all the intentions of the DSS to carry out its proposed operation.

Subsequently, Mr Emefiele introduced the new Naira design policy to the country’s economy ahead of the 2023 General elections, which triggered lots of pain, and hardship including death among Nigerians. Also, the political elites were not excluded from the discomfort inflicted by the Naira redesign which led to a cash crunch across the country.

Many politicians, including some state governors, also alleged that Mr. Emefiele’s policy was politically motivated to settle some political scores because his ambition to contest as president could not be materialised, and that he was being used by some cabal in the then Presidency. For instance, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, then, condemned the Naira redesign policy in one of his campaigns in Abeokuta, Ogun State, alleging that it was targeted at him to lose the elections.

Upon his assumption into the office, having met Mr. Emefiele once in the state house, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu unsurprisingly announced his suspension. To complete the script as expected, the DSS did not hesitate to make its move to arrest the suspended CBN governor in Lagos and flew him to its headquarters in Abuja on June 10, 2023.

Contrary to the constitution that a suspect can only be detained for more than 48 hours before they are charged to courts, the DSS held Mr. Emefiele for more than 40 days before finally charging him to court today. Before now, the banker had approached a Federal High Court for his freedom, in which Justice Hamza Muazu gave the Secret Services ultimatum to either charge the suspended CBN governor or allow him to have his freedom.

The judge maintained that his ruling was based on the issue of fundamental human rights, stating that even though the DSS has the power to arrest and interrogate, the Department cannot operate outside the ambit of the law.