Court to Hear Applications on Emefiele’s Custody on August 15 Amid Bail Dispute

Ilesanmi AdekanbiAugust 10, 2023

1 minute read

The Federal High Court in Lagos has fixed August 15 to entertain applications regarding the custody of Godwin Emefiele, the suspended governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, who is facing trial on a two-count charge of illegal possession of firearms.

The court dismissed the no-case submission made by Emefiele’s counsel, saying that there was enough evidence to link him with the charges.

The prosecuting counsel, K.A. Fagbemi, asked the court to hear the Federal Government’s application seeking a stay of execution of the court order granting bail to Emefiele.

Fagbemi said that the Federal Government filed its application first and served it on the defence counsels on August 4.

However, the defence counsel, Victor Opara, objected to the request, saying that priority should not be given to the Federal Government based on the time of filing since the court order was disobeyed.

Opara argued that the applications of both parties should be heard on the same day. He added that the Federal Government had nothing to lose since Emefiele was in its custody.

The judge, Justice Oweibo, ruled that the applications filed by both parties would be heard on August 15 .

Emefiele was granted bail in the sum of N20million by Justice Oweibo on July 25. The judge also ordered that Emefiele should be kept in the custody of the Nigeria Correctional Service (NCoS) pending the fulfillment of his bail conditions .

However, the Department of State Services (DSS) insisted that Emefiele must return to its custody, leading to a face-off between the DSS and NCoS officials. The DSS later rearrested Emefiele on the court premises .

The DSS also filed an application before a high court of the federal capital territory seeking to further detain Emefiele, but it was struck out after it was withdrawn by the DSS over jurisdictional concerns .