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Alleged Terrorism: Court Stops DSS From Arresting CBN Governor Emefiele

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The Federal High Court in Abuja, has rejected a request by the Department of State Security Services (SSS) to order the arrest of the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele.
The DSS had filed an ex parte application, seeking an order for the arrest of Emefiele over alleged “acts of financing terrorism, fraudulent activities and economic crimes of national security dimension.”
Emefiele is the sole respondent in the ex parte application marked FHC/ABJ/CS/2255/2022, dated December 7.
In a ruling on December 9, the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, Justice John Tsoho rejected the application on the grounds that the secret police failed to provide sufficient evidence to warrant the issuance of an arrest warrant against the CBN governor.

The judge noted that the depositions in the affidavit filed by the SSS 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.”

At the proceeding, Justice Tsoho noted that the name of the respondent was given simply as ‘Godwin Emefiele’ without a material disclosure that he is the same person as the CBN Governor.

“In the light of the foregoing reasons, I decline to grant this application ex parte. If the applicant believes that the evidence available to it so far is sufficient, then it can as well arrest and detain the applicant, even without the order of the court. If however the applicant desires to still pursue this application, then it should place the respondent on notice considering the sensitive public office that he occupies,” the judge ruled.

The judge, therefore, refused to entertain the suit until credible evidence is brought before the court as to the reason why the court should grant the request.

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