A LAGOS State High Court in Ikeja, on Monday, April 8, remanded the immediate past governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr. Godwin Emefiele, in the custody of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
Justice Rahman Oshodi ordered Emefiele to be remanded until the next adjourned date, Thursday, April 11, when the court would give its ruling on bail, following Emefiele’s arraignment for alleged abuse of office.
In his ruling, the Judge ordered that the former CBN governor and his co-defendants, Henry Omoile, who pleaded not guilty to a 26-count charge, should remain behind bars until Thursday, April 10, when the Judge would determine his bail application.
However, the Judge remanded Omoile in the custody of the Ikoyi Nigerian Correctional Services.
Before the ruling, Emefiele‘s lawyer, Abdulakeem Ladi-Lawal, had urged the court to admit his client to bail on self-recognition or in the most liberal terms.
The lawyer particularly urged the court to impose the same bail conditions earlier granted to the defendant by Justice Hamzat Muazu of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court in Abuja, pleading that Emefiele be released to his lawyers, pending the perfection of the bail terms.
The EFCC lawyer, Rotimi Oyedepo (SAN), did not oppose the bail application, but asked the court to exercise its discretion in the grant of bail and to impose conditions that would compel the defendants to appear in court for their trial.
The defendants were accused of accepting gratification, accepting gifts through agents, corruption and fraudulent property receipts.
Emefiele, in the charge was filed on April 3 by Oyedepo, was also accused of conferring a corrupt advantage on his associates, contrary to the Corrupt Practices Act of 2000.
Emefiele is also being prosecuted by the EFCC at the FCT High Court in Abuja over allegations of fraudulent financial transactions during his time in office.
On the first count, the former CBN governor was accused of abuse of office between 2022 and 2023, in Lagos, an offence punishable under “Section 73 of the Criminal Laws of Lagos State, 2011”.
Emefiele was also accused of arbitrarily allocating foreign exchange in the “aggregate sum of $2,136,391,737.33 without bids, which act is prejudicial to the rights of Nigerians.”
In the second count, the federal government alleged that between 2020 and 2021, Emefiele “directed to be done, in abuse of the authority of your office, as the Governor, Central Bank of Nigeria, an arbitrary act to wit: allocating foreign exchange in the aggregate sum of $291,945,785.59, without bids, which act is prejudicial to the rights of Nigerians.”
In the third count, Emefiele was accused of arbitrarily “allocating foreign exchange in the aggregate sum of $1,769,254,793.16, which act is prejudicial to the rights of Nigerians.”
Omoile was accused of accepting the sum of $110,000 on behalf of the former CBN governor as “reward for allocating foreign exchange by the Central Bank in favour of Raja Punjab’s employer.”
