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The embattled governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, quietly returned to the country on Wednesday, January 11.
This was made known by some sources in the apex bank on Wednesday.
Emefiele has been out of the country for several weeks amidst fears that he would be arrested by operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS), who are investigating several allegations against him, including corruption and terrorism financing.
A presidency source, however, said that the CBN governor got President Muhammadu Buhari’s permission for two weeks of leave which expired on Tuesday, January 10.
The source said that, “Emefiele’s holidays finished on January 10, so he has to report to work.”
It was also learnt that Emefiele is planning to leave the country again very soon, afraid the secret police could eventually arrest him amidst the continuous power play at the highest levels of government.
A source, while speaking on the development, said that, “He is trying to leave the country within the next few days on the pretence of attending the annual World Economic Forum.”
Meanwhile, the senior special assistant to the president on media and publicity, Garba Shehu, and the spokesperson of CBN, Osita Nwanisobi, are yet to verify the development at the time of filing this report.
Recall that DSS, in December 2022, secretly sought a court order to arrest Emefiele.
The federal high court, Abuja, however, rejected the request, according to Premium Times.
In the application, the DSS wanted the court to order the arrest of the CBN governor over alleged “acts of financing terrorism, fraudulent activities and economic crimes of national security dimension.”
The secret police filed the application marked FHC/ABJ/CS/2255/2022 at the court on December 7, 2022.
Emefiele was the sole defendant in the suit which was filed ‘ex-parte’, meaning that the CBN governor was not notified of the suit.
However, the presiding judge, John Tsoho, in a ruling on December 9, rejected the application on the grounds that the secret police failed to provide sufficient evidence to warrant the issuance of an arrest warrant against Emefiele.
The judge said that 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.”
In rejecting the application, Justice Tsoho said that, “These are no doubt grave allegations, but which the applicant has not presented any concrete evidence to support.”
Justice Tsoho also accused the DSS of deceit, adding that the secret police failed to indicate that ‘Godwin Emefiele’, against whom the order was sought, was the same as the CBN governor.
“The respondent in this application is named as ‘Godwin Emefiele’ without disclosure of his status or position anywhere, not even in the affidavit,” Justice Tsoho said.
The judge also ruled that considering the sensitive position held by Emefiele, the permission of President Buhari ought to have been sought before the bank chief is arrested.
He said that, “It is left to speculation if the ‘Godwin Emefiele’ is the same person as the serving governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria.
“If it is, then he is unarguably a high-ranking public official in Nigeria and indeed occupies a sensitive position as one of the key drivers of the nation’s economy.
“Therefore, an application of this kind should have evidence of the approval of the respondent’s boss, that such measures are authorised to be taken,” the judge added.
Meanwhile, about two weeks after Justice Tsoho gave his order, Emefiele got another reprieve from a separate court.
The federal capital territory high court granted a request by a civil society organisation (CSO) to prevent the arrest of the bank chief.
A judge, Muslim Hassan, of the FCT court ruled that based on Justice Tsoho’s earlier ruling, “any continuous harassment, intimidation, threats, restriction of movement, abuse of right of office, surreptitious moves to arrest, and humiliation” of Emefiele, over “trumped up allegations of terrorism financing and fraudulent practices” was illegal and unconstitutional.
The judge also restrained the DSS “from instigating the arrest or arresting, interrogating and detaining” Emefiele in respect of any matter or policy decision on the Nigerian economy “or for any connected purposes except by an order of a superior court.”
Emefiele has been in the news for the wrong reasons in recent times.
Amidst the nation’s worsening economic situation, partly due to wrong CBN policies, including violations of its own laws, Emefiele decided to go into active politics while holding on to his office.
He not only joined the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) but sought to be the president of Nigeria on the party’s platform.
Although he got the APC nomination form, he had to pull out of the presidential race, after spending billions of naira including on publicity, due to public outrage and allegedly failing to secure President Buhari’s support for his ambition.
Emefiele has also faced criticisms for the CBN’s recent policy of redesigning the country’s highest currencies including N200, N500 and N1000.
The apex bank also set January 31 as the limit for the validity of the old naira notes.
However, a few weeks before the expiration of the deadline, Nigerians have continued to lament the implementation of the policy as the new notes are scarce while banks continue to issue the old notes.
Emefiele’s controversial absence from the nation has been a source of worry for stakeholders in the banking sector ahead of the CBN’s first Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting of the year scheduled for January 23.
The CBN boss is the chairman of the MPC meetings in which key monetary policy decisions are taken as part of the apex bank’s efforts to control inflation, regulate banking operations, and stabilize the larger economy.
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