By Ayo Yusuf
Two days after failing to stop a Lagos High Court from granting bail to the suspended Central Bank governor, Godwin Emefiele, the Department of State Services, DSS, has again lost a bid to get a Federal Capital Territory High Court sitting in Maitama, Abuja to grant it an additional two weeks custody of Mr. Emefiele.
On Tuesday after the Lagos High court had granted Mr. Emefiele bail of N20m with two sureties in like sum, the DSS had fought to take the former Governor away and in the process injured a senior official of Ikoyi prisons who had led his men in the effort to execute the ruling.
The fresh application by the DSS to detain Mr. Emefiele for another 14 days constituted an abuse of the judicial process, especially since the court had no jurisdiction to entertain it, said an Abuja court.
The DSS in the application marked: FCT/HC/M/12105/2023, told the court that it had uncovered a fresh evidence that would require it to further retain the suspended governor of the CBN in its custody.
It prayed the court to allow it to hold Mr. Emefiele in its custody for another 14 days, to give room for the conclusion of its ongoing investigation.
However, when the case was called for Hearing, Justice Muazu asked the counsel representing the directorate, Mr. Victor Ejelonu, to explain if the court has the jurisdiction to grant the application, in view of provisions of Sections 293 and 296 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act.
Justice Muazu noted that the said provisions vested exclusive rights of granting such application on the Magistrate Court.
Following the observation of the judge who maintained that the high court lacked the jurisdiction to grant the order, counsel to the DSS, Mr. Ejelonu, withdrew the application.
It will be recalled that operatives of the DSS had on June 10, stormed Emefiele’s Ikoyi residence in Lagos and arrested him a day after he was suspended as the governor of the CBN by President Bola Tinubu.
The embattled CBN boss remained in custody until Wednesday when he was arraigned before the Federal High Court in Lagos on a two-count charge of illegal possession of firearm and ammunition.
Meanwhile, upon his arraignment and plea of innocence, the court granted Mr. Emefiele bail and Justice Nicolas Oweibo ordered that the defendant should be remanded in prison custody, pending the perfection of his bail conditions.
Not willing to comply with the court order, the DSS re-arrested Emefiele in the court premises, in an operation that led its operatives to violently manhandle a senior prison official.
While reacting to the fresh request by the DSS for a detention order, Abuja based lawyer, Mr. Nnamdi Mba, argued that the security agency treated the court with disrespect.
He said: “You cannot be charging someone to court and yet you cannot obey the same court.
“What the DSS is doing is tantamount to intimidating the courts.”
Likewise, another lawyer, Mr. C. C Nwodu, added: “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. It is the duty of the court.
“Hence, once a defendant is granted bail, except the judge specifically mentioned otherwise, the men of the Nigeria Correctional Service take custody of such a 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.
No judge, knowing the true facts of this matter can grant them such application. I am glad to hear that the judge courageously struck out the application,” he added.
