By Bukola Olasanmi
A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja has refused an application by the Department of State Services (DSS) to arrest and detain Godwin Emefiele, governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) over allegations bothering on “acts of financing terrorism, fraudulent activities and economic crimes of national security dimension.”
In declining the motion ex parte filed by an applicant in the absence of the respondent, Justice JT Tsoho, the chief judge, said the DSS did not provide any concrete evidence to substantiate its claims that Emefiele was involved in terrorism financing and economic crimes.
It was gathered that the judge said he should have been taken into confidence if there was any evidence to back the allegations in the application, marked FHC/ABJ/CS/2255/2022.
The court said such an application should have been accompanied with the presidential approval because of the grave implications for the Nigerian economy if the CBN governor is arrested and detained.
There are suggestions that the bid to arrest Emefiele might be political given the impact the redesign of the naira and limit on cash withdrawals might have on vote-buying in the 2023 elections.
Nigerians have complained that the naira redesign is targeted at them but President Muhammadu Buhari has given his full backing to Emefiele over the policy.
A group of civil society organisations had raised the alarm that there was a plot to frame Emefiele for terrorism and remove him from office.
Meanwhile, DSS has warned Nigerians against being used to “undermine” its investigations.