The Federal High Court in Abuja has thrown out a request by the Department of State Services (DSS) to order the arrest of the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele.
The secret police had filed an ex parte application for an order for the arrest of the CBN governor over alleged “acts of financing terrorism, fraudulent activities and economic crimes of national security dimension.”
The SSS filed the application marked FHC/ABJ/CS/2255/2022 at the court on 7 December, suing Mr Emefiele as the sole respondent in the ex parte application.
But the judge, John Tsoho, who is the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, in a ruling on 9 December, rejected the application on the grounds that the secret police failed to provide sufficient evidence to warrant the issuance of an arrest warrant against Mr Emefiele.
According to Tosho, “the depositions in the affidavit filed by the DSS in support of its application purport that preliminary investigation has revealed various acts of terrorism financing, fraudulent activities perpetrated by the respondent and his involvement in economic crimes of national security dimension.”
But rejecting the application, the judge said: “These are no doubt grave allegations, but which the applicant has not presented any concrete evidence to support.”
He also said the DSS failed to clearly identify the person against whom the arrest warrant was sought. He said it remained speculation whether the person was the same Godwin Emefiele serving as the CBN governor.
He said there was no evidence in DSS’ application that such approval was obtained.
