Afimag.com –
Legal practitioners under the auspices of Lawyers in Defence of Democracy (LDD) have blasted the Department of State Services (DSS) for arresting and detaining the suspended Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr Godwin Emefiele, without former President Muhammadu Buhari.
LDD Convener, Barr Kingdom Okere, who disclosed while speaking on Arise TV on July 14, 2023, said it was Buhari who gave final approval to the recommendations of Godwin Emefiele.
Recall that Court halted the several efforts made by the DSS to apprehend the embattled CBN Governor in December last year.
Emefiele had in the lead up to the 2023 general elections came under intense scrutiny following the apex bank’s Naira Redesign Policy which many partisans perceived as targeting Bola Tinubu, who was presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
According to him, Emefiele’s arrest was unlawful, and in violation of a subsisting order of the Federal Capital Territory FCT High Court.
He consequently called for the sack of the Director General State Services DGSS, Yusuf Bichi, saying there was no reason to have retained him when President Tinubu sacked the Service Chiefs.
Okere who recalled how the SSS had tried to arrest Emefiele in December last year but only succeeded in June 2023, said it was deeply concerning that the security agency would still detain Emefiele for more than one month, instead of having gathered its evidences within the period from December 2022 to June 2023.
“We just heard from the statement by the DSS that they have charged him to court. Charging him to court is different from arraigning him. We have not seen a copy of the charge. Of course, the accused has been in illegal detention of the DSS, and his lawyers should be privy to whatever charges that may have preferred against him.
“The point is that Lawyers in the Defence of Democracy have been on this issue since 7th December 2022 when the DSS sought to obtain a black market exparte application from the Federal High Court. It is black market because the honourable judge of the Federal High Court said the DSS could not use that honourable court to commence an irregular proceeding.
“Thereafter, on 29th December 2022, Justice MA Hassan of the FCT High Court made an order of perpetual injunction restraining the DSS from preferring any trump up charge of terrorism financing against the suspended CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele and DSS participated in that proceeding and they have not appealed that decision and if they purport to have done that, there is no proper record of appeal at the Appeal Court to that effect.
“The rule of law does not empower the DSS to disregard an order of a court of competent jurisdiction. The only thing they can do within their constitutional right is to go to a higher court to set it aside. Insofar as that order remains, whatever they are purporting to do, to file any charges against Emefiele remains illegal ab initio.
“Between December 07, 2022, when they first went to court and 8th June 2023 when they eventually arrested him, they didn’t have any evidence against him. What they have done is to prove us right that they had plans to frame him up.
“It has now taken them more than one month and just Thursday’s court order that directed them to either release him or charge him to court to now go and file whatever charge they purport to have filed,” he said.
