By Bayo Davids
Reprieve came the way of Godwin Emefiele, the suspended Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Thursday as a Federal Capital Territory High Court sitting Abuja struck an application believed to have secretly filed by the Department of State Services to detain him for additional 14 days.
The secret police, despite widespread condemnation of its conduct on Wednesday for whisking Emefiele away despite a bail granted him by the court, is bent on filing fresh charges against the ex-CBN boss
The application, marked FCT/HC/M/12105/2023 and heard by Justice Hamza Muazu was quietly filed by DSS on Wednesday and came up before the vacation judge on Thursday.
Justice Muazu struck out the application, describing it as an abuse of court process and for lack of jurisdiction.
When questioned on the court’s jurisdiction to hear the application given the provision of Sections 239 and 293 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, which reserves exclusive rights on the magistrate court to grant detention orders, counsel to the DSS, Victor Ejelonu applied and withdrew the application.
The secret police which has been displaying gross unprofessionalism since the ordeal of Emefiele began in June.
On Wednesday, DSS displayed crass disrespect for the rule of law when it engaged in a scuffle with men of Nigeria Correctional Service for the custody of Emefiele who was to be remanded at the correctional centre pending the perfection of his bail granted by Justice Nicholas Oweibo.
Berating the conduct of the secret police, an Abuja-based constitutional lawyer, Nnamdi Mba said, “You cannot be charging someone to court yet you cannot obey the same court. What the DSS is doing is tantamount to intimidating the courts”
Similarly, C. C. Nwudo, also a lawyer, told this medium that “Ordinarily, when a person is brought to court and takes his plea, it is no longer the duty of the security agency that brought the defendant to court to determine where the person will be held in custody but the duty of the court.
“Hence, once a defendant is granted bail, except the judge specifically mentions otherwise, the men of the Nigeria Correctional Service take custody of such person until the bail conditions are perfected. In the case of Emefiele, the DSS practically abducted him from the custody of the Correctional Service and have now filed for an order seeking to further detain him for 14 days when they have held him consecutively for over six weeks and have exhausted the maximum two previous orders to detain him for 28 days.
“Except they tell a bunch of lies in their application to the judge, no judge knowing the true facts of this matter can grant them such an application. I am glad to hear that the judge courageously struck out their application”
On her part, Barrister Hassan Omale in his own reaction described the abduction of Emefiele by the DSS from the custody of the Nigeria Correctional Service without Court order as “Unlawful and outright criminal and whoever gave the order for such to happen ought to be removed from office immediately.”
With the application having been struck out by the Court, the DSS is now in a very difficult position to continue to further detain Mr. Emefiele who has been in their custody for more than six weeks. They cannot continue to hold him illegally and they cannot get another magistrate order to overrule the order of the High Court since the High Court does not have jurisdiction to grant them such an order in the first place.
No doubt, This is yet another judicial loss suffered by the DSS against Emefiele in a case that has been dubbed by many as persecution and personal vendetta.