The suspended Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Godwin Emefiele, will on July 25, appear before the Lagos Division of the Federal High Court.
The embattled CBN boss, who has been in the custody of the Department of State Services, DSS, is billed to enter his plea before Justice Nicholas Oweibo, following allegations the Department of State Services, DSS, levelled against him.
It will be recalled that operatives of the security agency had on June 10, stormed Emefiele’s Ikoyi residence in Lagos on June 10, a day after he was suspended as governor of the CBN by President Bola Tinubu.
He was arrested and has since then remained in custody, with the DSS maintaining that his detention was based on the order of an Abuja Chief Magistrate Court.
However, a consortium of human rights lawyers, led by Maxwell Okpara and Ahmed Tijani, faulted his continued detention, even as they accused the DSS of acting in breach of subsisting court judgments.
The legal practitioners equally initiated contempt action against the Director General of the Department of State Services, DSS, Yusuf Bichi.
Form 48, which is the notification of consequences of disobedience to a court order, and Form 49, which seeks to commit an alleged contemnor to prison, were filed before the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Abuja.
The group further called for Bichi’s sack, following a tweet the security agency posted on its official Twitter handle, where it described them as “charge and bail lawyers” and sympathizers of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB.
Meanwhile, the DSS, in the two-count charge marked: FHC/L/437/2023, accused Emefiele of unlawfully possessing one single-barrel shotgun (Jojeff Magnum 8371) without a license, and thereby committed an offense under Section 4 of the Firearms Laws of the Federation 2004 and punishable under Section 27 (1) (b) (i) of the same act.
He was equally accused of having in his possession, 123 rounds of live ammunition (catridges) without a licence.
The security agency told the court that the items were recovered when it searched Emefiele’s residence at No.3B Iru Close, Ikoyi, Lagos.
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