The Federal Capital Territory High Court, Abuja, on Tuesday adjourned the fresh arraignment of the suspended governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, over alleged unlawful printing of naira notes, to May 15, 2024.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) was scheduled to arraign Emefiele before Justice Maryanne Anenih in the suit marked CR/264/2024.
In the charge sheet filed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) before Justice Anenih, Emefiele was accused of knowingly disobeying the direction of Section 19 of the CBN Act, 2007, by approving the printing of N375,520,000.00 pieces of color-swapped N1,000 notes, at the total cost of N11,052,068,062 without the recommendation of the Board of the Central Bank and the strict approval of the President, Federal Republic of Nigeria, among other things.
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What transpired in court
At the resumed sitting on Tuesday, the EFCC case was listed on the court’s cause list, as seen by Nairametrics, but none of the legal teams of the parties, including Emefiele, showed up until the end of proceedings.
Nairametrics gathered that the EFCC had applied to the court to have the planned arraignment, scheduled for today, April 30, shifted to another date.
The court subsequently adjourned Emefiele’s arraignment to May 15, 2024, at the instance of the EFCC’s request for an adjournment.
Nairametrics also gathered from a lawyer on Emefiele’s team, Maxwell Opara, that the suspended governor was still in Lagos.
More insights
- Emefiele was suspended from office by President Bola Tinubu paving way for an investigation into his office as CBN governor and subsequent prosecution.
- The suspended governor had also filed a fundamental Human rights suit against his prolonged detention before Justice O. Adeniyi. The application was granted.
- Emefiele was arraigned on a two-count charge of illegal possession of firearms and ammunition before Justice Nicholas Oweibo, July 25, 2023. The matter was eventually withdrawn by the Attorney General of the federation and struck out by the court.
- On November 17, 2023, the EFCC arraigned the former CBN governor before Justice Muazu on a six-count charges bordering on procurement fraud.
Emefiele pleaded “not guilty.” to the charge. EFCC later amended the charges before Justice Muazu and re-arraigned Emefiele.
On April 4, 2024, the EFCC arraigned Emefiele before Justice Rahman Oshodi of the Lagos High Court over abuse of office bordering on alleged irregular allocation of billions of US dollars in foreign exchange.
The suspended CBN governor pleaded not guilty, and the case is yet to be concluded.