A human rights lawyer, Monday Ubani has described reasons adduced for the continued detention of Emefiele as “watery”. Ubani insisted that the DSS simply flouted the court order, adding that the charge against Mr Emefiele was a bailable offence.

Ubani made the statement on Tuesday after the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) at the Federal Ministry of Justice, Abubakar Mohammed explained to the media in court that processes and pending charges against Godwin Emefiele, the suspended Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) governor “occasioned the delay” in obeying court ruling over his custody.

Abubakar Mohammed, spoke to journalists after a court session on Tuesday where he was seeking to withdraw the firearms charge against Mr Emefiele at the federal high court in Ikoyi, Lagos. The defence team of Emefiele however opposed his prayers insisting that the court should deal with the refusal of the DSS to obey the court’s ruling on bail for Emefiele.

Ubani said: “No administrative procedure supersedes the court ruling. The so-called DPP was talking clearly out of point. That’s not the position of what happened in the court. The court made an order that Emefiele should be granted bail, mentioned the bail conditions and the DSS waited in order to abduct him. He was abducted because that was clearly contrary to the court order,” Mr Ubani said.

“He was no longer supposed to be returned to the custody of the SSS.”

On the administrative processes that “slowed down” the SSS compliance, Mr Ubani queried, “where do you have administrative procedures when the court has made an order?

You were with him for almost two months, what were they investigating that they couldn’t have completed within that period.

That particular charge is their way of asking Emefiele to go because they have nothing against him or if they have something against him they will not charge him for those offences because many people will go down, including the former President Muhammadu Buhari.”

He also said that “the continuous detention of Mr Emefiele under a democracy is “clearly illegal, shocking and shameful”.

He said it shows that President Bola Tinubu’s administration is building on the legacy of “court disobedience and rule of law violation” of the previous administration.

Meanwhile, a Federal High Court in Lagos will on Thursday  rule on an application for  withdrawal of charges against the suspended Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele.

The application was made by the Federal Government. Justice Nicholas Oweibo gave the date after arguments on the application by parties in the suit.

Oweibo had reserved hearing of two pending  applications for Tuesday.

One of the pending applications was filed by the Federal Government. It seeks to appeal the bail granted Emefiele by the court on July 25.

The second application was filed by Emefiele. It seeks to stop his prosecution by the government on charges of illegal possession of firearms and ammunition.

However,  on Tuesday,  the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) in the Federal Ministry of Justice, Mr Mohammed Abubakar, made an oral application for  withdrawal the charges against Emefiele.

He said  that the application was informed by emerging facts that needed further investigations. He urged the court to grant the application.

Emefiele’s counsel, Mr Joseph Daudu (SAN), however, opposed  the application.

He  argued that the government was in disobedience of the court’s order granting Emefiele’s bail and, therefore, should not have its application entertained by the court.

“We have an application that the government has flouted the court’s order which says the respondent/ defendant should be remanded at the Nigeria Correctional Service.

“The court granted an order of substituted service to be published in three national dailies, and after that, the prosecution brought an application for stay of execution of the bail order,” he submitted.

He added that the  application for withdrawal of charges must be in writing.

“In the interest of justice, we need to prevent abuse of legal processes.

“I urge the court to reject the application and order the learned DPP to go on with today’s business,” he said.

BRANDPOWER reports that the court, on July 25, admitted Emefiele to  N20 million bail after he was arraigned on a two-count charge of illegal possession of firearms and ammunition.

The court ordered his remand at the facility of the Nigeria Correctional Service pending  perfection of the bail condition.

However, in violation of the court order asking that he be detained at the Nigeria Correctional Service (NCoS), the DSS rearrested him immediately he stepped out of the courtroom.

Mr Emefiele was rearrested after officials of the two federal agencies engaged in a violent altercation over his custody.

Mr Mohammed said their action in rearresting him did not mean disobedience to court order. “We are not in disobedience of the court ruling,” he said.

“When the court rendered its ruling granting the defendant bail, it was in two legs. He was granted bail and remanded in the custody of the correctional service pending fulfillment of bail conditions.

“You will agree with me that there are administrative processes for handing over a detainee from one agency to the other. And that is what the state services had to do and that was what occasioned the delay.”

He also explained that the suspended bank chief is being investigated for other offenses, the outcome of which will determine the charges that will be filed against him.

“And if I may say this, there is also another pending charge against him at the high court as we speak. So, all these combined slow down the process of complying with the order of the court,” he said.

Speaking on the pending charges, Mr Mohammed said that “unlawful possession of firearms may be part of it and perhaps more”.

“The charges at the FCT high court, conferring unlawful advantage, there are charges that border on procurement of …under the ICPC Act. 20 counts.”

Tinubu has also appointed a Special Investigator to probe CBN. Amid this probe, the apex bank released its audited financial statement, which showed that it is owing JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs a combined sum of $7.5 billion as of the financial year ended December 2022.