Justice Nicholas Oweibo of the federal High Court, Lagos has fixed August 15 to entertain applications regarding the custody of Godwin Emefiele, suspended governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
Justice Oweibo on Thursday adjourned hearing of the applications filed by the federal government and counsels to Emefiele.
The prosecutor, K.A. Fagbemi, urged the court to hear the Federal Government’s application seeking a stay of execution of the court order on Emefiele’s bail.
Fagbemi said the FG filed its application first and served it on the defence counsels on August 4.
Responding, Victor Opara, counsel to Emefiele, said priority should not be given to the FG based on time of filing since the court order was disobeyed, adding that the applications of both parties should be entertained on the same day.
He said the FG has nothing to lose since the defendant is in its custody.
After listening to both arguments, the judge ruled that the applications filed by both parties will be heard on August 15.
On July 25, Emefiele was arraigned on a two-count charge bordering on “illegal possession” of firearms at a Federal High court in Ikoyi and was granted bail in N20 million.
Oweibo had ordered that Emefiele be kept in the custody of the Nigeria Correctional Service (NCoS) pending the fulfillment of his bail conditions.
But the Department of State Services (DSS) insisted that Emefiele must return to its custody — a development that led to the face-off between the secret police and prison officials.
After the face-off, DSS rearrested Emefiele on the court premises.
a high court of the federal capital territory seeking to further detain the suspended CBN governor.
The application was stuck out after it was withdrawn by the service over jurisdictional concerns.
On August 3, the federal government also filed an application before the federal high court in Lagos, seeking leave to appeal the order granting bail to Emefiele.
In the application filed by Nkiru Jones-Nebo, a deputy director of public prosecutions of the federation, the federal government also sought a stay of execution of the order remanding Emefiele in the custody of the NCoS.
The federal government wants the court to remand Emefiele in the custody of the DSS.
In the application filed by Emefiele’s counsels, they asked the court to stop the FG from further prosecuting their client, adding that FG was always disobeying the subsisting orders of the court granting Emefiele bail on July 25.
