Court Fixes Jan. 8 To Deliver Judgement On Emefiele’s N1bn Suit Against FG
Judgement into the suit filed by a former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Godwin Emefiele, would be delivered by the Federal Capital Territory High Court in Abuja on January 8, 2024.
Recall that Emefiele who was arrested on June 20, 2023, shortly after he was suspended by president Bola Tinubu, filed one billion naira fundamental rights suit against the Federal Government, challenging his continued detention in the custody of the Department of State Services, DSS.
Listed as defendants in the suit were the Federal Government, the Attorney General of the Federation; the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC and its chairman.
He is urging the court to declare that his prolonged detention by the agency of the first and second respondents since June 10, 2023, and subsequent transfer to the custody of the third and fourth respondents on October 26, 2023, without being arraigned in court was unlawful.
He wants the court to order the respondents to pay him N1bn damages and to restrain them from further arresting and or detaining him.
At the resumed hearing on Monday, December 11, his lawyer, Mathew Burkaa (SAN), told the court the former CBN governor was detained for 151 days contrary to the law.
He, therefore, urged the court to enter judgment and award damages in his client’s favour.
Burkaa stated that Emefiele was held incommunicado as shown by the fact that the deponent to the suit, Dr Okanta Emefiele, was denied access to the ex-CBN governor and could not communicate with him.
He said this was enough basis for the court to enter judgment in Emefiele’s favour, submitting that every Nigerian deserved the court’s protection.
Responding, counsel for the first and second respondents, Oyin Koleosho,urged the court to dismiss the suit for lacking in merit.
