A report by Sahara Reporters indicates that the home of the embattled former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, is under surveillance by security agents.
On Wednesday, Justice Olukayode Adeniyi of the Federal Capital Territory High Court in Abuja had granted Emefiele bail.
Justice Adeniyi ordered that Emefiele should be immediately released to his lawyers.
He, however, charged Emefiele’s lawyers with the responsibility of producing him in court for his arraignment next week or any other day and ordered Emefiele to deposit his passport and other travel documents before the registrar of the court pending his arraignment.
According to Justice Adeniyi, Emefiele should not be detained in perpetuity without trial.
Meanwhile, government sources quoted in the report said the judge had been put under the spotlight over his handling of Emefiele’s bail.
One, the judge was accused of refusing to allow Emefiele to be processed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) after granting him bail.
Two, even though the judge directed that Emefiele’s “international documents must be deposited with the registrar of this court pending the determination of his case”, sources said that was not done by the former CBN governor and his lawyers, yet he was allowed to go home.
Also, the counsel for the EFCC, Farouk Abdullahi, had argued that Emefiele was put in the custody of the anti-corruption agency on October 26 under a detention order made by the court and that he would be prosecuted in a criminal case that had been scheduled to come up on November 15.
However, sources said eyebrows were raised over the judge’s refusal to act on the arguments posed by the EFCC counsel.
“Judge in Emefiele’s case has been accused of compromising on the ex-CBN governor’s case. He granted him bail but refused to let him get processed by the EFCC,” one of the sources said.
“Emefiele is now at his Abuja home under surveillance. He and his lawyers also refused to deposit his passport as requested by the judge,” another source said.
Emefiele was suspended by President Bola Tinubu on June 9 and subsequently arrested by the Department of State Services (DSS).
Emefiele was first charged with illegal possession of firearms and sponsoring terrorism by the DSS. Still, the charges were later dropped, and the former apex bank governor and his associates were set for arraignment on N6.9 billion procurement fraud at the Federal Capital Territory High Court in August, but the arraignment was stalled.
In late October, Emefiele regained his freedom after the DSS released him.
He was, however, picked up immediately by EFCC personnel.
