Eko Hot Blog reports that the Department of State Services (DSS) has reacted to reports that its operatives arrested Godwin Emefiele, the suspended governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Friday night.
Recall that President Bola Tinubu suspended the CBN governor Friday evening.
EDITOR’S PICKS
About an hour after the suspension, reports surfaced that Emefiele had been immediately arrested by DSS operatives.
However, there was no official reaction from the secret police until Saturday morning.
In a terse statement on Saturday, the DSS said Emefiele was “currently” not in its custody.
“Currently, Emefiele is not with the DSS,” the secret police said on Twitter.
The DSS, however, did not say whether Emefiele had been in its custody or if he will still be arrested.
A few months ago, the DSS accused Emefiele of fraternising with a well-known terror financier, whose name was not disclosed.
The DSS said the suspended CBN governor was involved in the financing of terrorism and must answer for the alleged crime.
Back in February, it said preliminary investigation revealed various acts of terrorism financing, fraudulent activities perpetrated by Emefiele and his involvement in economic crimes of national security dimension.
In the heat of the case, the DSS had tried to arrest Emefiele but a Federal High Court in Maitama, Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja issued an order restraining it from arresting Emefiele.
This ruling, delivered by Justice M.A. Hassan also applied to the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF), the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) who were listed as defendants.
Earlier, a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja declined an application filed by the DSS to arrest and detain Emefiele over the grave allegations against him.
FURTHER READING
In declining the motion ex parte filed by the secret police, Justice J. T. Tsoho, the Chief Judge, said the DSS did not provide any concrete evidence to substantiate its claims that Emefiele was involved in terrorism financing and economic crimes.
Click to watch our video of the week:
Advertise or Publish a Story on EkoHot Blog:
Kindly contact us at [email protected]. Breaking stories should be sent to the above email and substantiated with pictorial evidence.
Citizen journalists will receive a token as data incentive.
Call or Whatsapp: 0803 561 7233, 0703 414 5611