16 June 2023

The Department of State Security (DSS) has ordered by an Abuja High Court  to immediately grant the former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr Godwin Emefiele, unrestricted access to his lawyers and family members.

The order followed an application filed by Counsel to Emefiele, Mr J.B. Daudu (SAN).

Daudu informed the court that he had written letters to the DSS, particularly on June 14, for the purpose of taking further instructions from Emefiele. But DSS refused to respond to the application.

Suit No. FCT/HC/CV/1450/2023, which Emefiele filed as the applicant has three respondents including, the Attorney General of the Federation of Nigeria, the Director General, the State Security Service and the State Security Service.

Justice Mu’Azu upon hearing the oral application granted the order as sought by the applicant.

“The lawyers of the applicant shall have access to the applicant immediately. And regularly, at a reasonable time, pending the determination of the application. He consequently adjourned the hearing to June 20,” the judge said.

Emefiele was arrested shortly after new President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s government suspended him following nearly a decade in the post.

Tinubu, who came to power at the end of last month following a highly contested February presidential election, had promised reforms to help Africa’s largest economy emerge from financial troubles.

“The Department of State Services (DSS) hereby confirms that Mr Godwin Emefiele, the suspended Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) is now in its custody for some investigative reasons,” the DSS internal security agency said in a statement.

The DSS did not give any further details, but one of Tinubu’s government spokesmen earlier said that Emefiele had been suspended immediately as part of an “ongoing investigation of his office and the planned reforms in the financial sector”.

One of the bank’s deputy governors has stepped into the director’s role pending the conclusion of investigations.