Chief Judge of the Federal High Court Abuja, Justice John Tsoho, has rejected a suit filed by Department of State Services (DSS), seeking to arrest Central Bank of Nigeria Governor, Godwin Emefiele, over terrorism charges.
Tsoho described the suit as an illegal operation and plot to deceive the court into granting a frivolous order to help arrest and deprive an innocent man of his personal liberty.
Ruling on the suit between the DSS (applicant) and Emefiele (respondent), Tsoho said the entire affidavit depositions purports 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.
The copy of the judgment, dated December 9, 2022, was obtained by The Guardian in Abuja.
The Chief Judge said these are, no doubt, grave allegations, which the applicant has not presented any concrete evidence to support. And the applicant should have taken the court into confidence, while seeking the exercise of its discretion in favour of granting its application.
Declining the request, the Chief Judge ruled that if, however, the applicant desires to still pursue the application, then it should place the respondent on notice, considering the sensitive public office he occupies.
He said: “It is my respectful opinion that the ipse dixit of the applicant, standing on its own, is not sufficient evidence upon which to deprive a person of his liberty.
“The respondent in this application is named as ‘Godwin Emefiele’ without disclosure of his status or position anywhere, not even in the affidavit.
“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.
