Constitutional and human rights lawyer Femi Falana (SAN) has urged the Department of State Security (DSS) to arrest the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) governor, Godwin Emefiele, as soon as he returns to the country.
Recall that the DSS had asked an Abuja court to grant a request for the arrest of Emefiele over alleged terrorism financing and economic crimes of national security, but Justice Maryam Hassan of the Federal Capital Territory High Court Abuja rejected the move by the DSS.
Justice Hassan also barred the DSS from arresting, inviting, or detaining Emefiele, declaring the terrorism allegations against the CBN governor by the DSS as vindictive, callous, oppressive, void, and of no effect.
Speaking on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics, Falana stated that the DSS does not need the court’s permission to arrest Emefiele if it possesses concrete evidence.
While claiming that the CBN governor is yet to return to the country, the lawyer said: “He hasn’t returned to the country because he has been declared wanted by the state security services.”
He urged the DSS to proceed to arrest Emefiele upon his arrival in Nigeria, noting that the apex bank governor is not one of those constitutionally entitled to immunity in Nigeria.
Falana said: “Has the government considered the enormous implication of the effect of a wanted governor of the central bank on the economy?
“I am completely flabbergasted that the President of the country has not intervened, either to call the state security to order or to call Mr Emefiele to return to the country or be fired.”
“These guys play on our collective intelligence because they know we are very forgetful. In 2014, his (Emefiele’s) immediate predecessor, former Emir of Kano, Alhaji Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, was equally accused of terrorism financing.
“In the same way, he (Sanusi) also travelled out of the country to attend a meeting with the governors of the central banks of West Africa in Niamey, Niger Republic.
“As soon as he landed in Lagos, he was arrested, his passport was seized,” Falana added.
