The arraignment of suspended governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, has been fixed for August 23 after a failed one scheduled for Thursday.
His arraignment stalled due to the absence of some of the defendants joined in the charge.
Emefiele who was present in court, was charged alongside Sa’adatu Yaro, a female CBN employee, and her company, April1616 Investment Limited, on 20 charges bordering on procurement fraud, conspiracy and conferring corrupt advantages.
Meanwhile, Justice Nicholas of the Federal High Court in Lagos has withdrawn the charge of illegal possession of firearms filed against Emefiele.
This followed the oral application made by the Director of Public Prosecution, Mohammed Abubakar.
On August 15, the federal government had made an oral application to withdraw the charge of “illegal possession of firearms” against Emefiele.
Mohammed Abubakar, the director of public prosecution (DPP) of the federation, said the decision to withdraw the charge is backed by sections 174 (1) and (3) of the 1999 constitution and sections 108 (1), (2) and (4) of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA) 2015.
The DPP said the application of withdrawal was informed by “emerging facts and circumstances of this case that required closer investigation”.
Ruling on the application on Thursday, Justice Oweibo agreed that the FG has the right to withdraw the charge.
He said “The prosecution has shown that they are not law-abiding and have no respect for the court.
“The court cannot force them. What good will it be for the defendant who is in custody? Of what benefit will it be to keep the file in the court’s docket?
“I believe the proper thing is to allow them to withdraw the charge. They can simply abandon it and the court will still have to strike it out for lack of diligent prosecution.
“The application to withdraw is hereby granted.”
