PRESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari, on Thursday, January 19, met with the embattled Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr. Godwin Emefiele, at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
The meeting is the second between the President and the CBN governor, as Emefiele was part of the earlier audience granted the Arab Bank for Economic Development team by Buhari at the Presidential Villa.
Emefiele, who returned to the country on January 12, after spending his yearly leave abroad, had been in the news over allegation of corruption and terrorism financing. There have been reported attempt by operatives of the Department of State Service (DSS) to arrest him.
Earlier, DSS officers had sought a court order to arrest him, but the request was turned down by the Federal High Court in Abuja.
The DSS had asked the court to order Emefiele’s arrest over alleged “acts of financing terrorism, fraudulent activities and economic crimes of national security dimension.”
On October 20, last year, Justice Inyang Ekwo of the Federal High Court in Abuja had summoned Emefiele over $53million judgment debt arising from the Paris Club refund and ordered him to appear before it on Wednesday, January 18 as the hearing date.
However, Emefiele filed an appeal against the ruling, saying Justice Ekwo erred in law and occasioned a miscarriage of justice when he made an order compelling his attendance in court for the $53million debt.
Wednesday’s proceedings could not go on as planned when the matter was called, making the court to adjourn the case until March 20.
