CBN Governor Emefiele’s Future in Doubt as DSS Seizes Passport, Plans Home, Office Search. The passport of suspended Central Bank Governor Godwin Emefiele has been confiscated by the Department of State Services. The service may also conduct a search of Emefiele’s home and workplace this week, according to reports.
Following his suspension on Friday as a result of the ongoing investigation into his office and the planned banking sector reforms, the agency arrested Emefiele in Lagos and flew him to Abuja on Saturday in a private plane.
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In a statement, the service’s spokesperson, Peter Afunanya, said Emefiele had been arrested and was being investigated.
However, a DSS source said on Sunday that it was regular protocol for his travel document to be seized until the outcome of the investigation.
The source further stated that the suspended apex bank governor’s office and apartment would be searched.
Of course, Emefiele’s travel document would be confiscated as part of the standard procedure pending the conclusion of our investigation, the source said. In addition, as part of the probe, his home and office would be searched for papers that could enhance the current investigation into his CBN management.
According to our source, other top CBN officials may be summoned or jailed for interrogation about their participation in the apex bank’s administration.
The DSS may reconsider the criminal allegations it had filed against Emefiele, which include terrorism financing and fraud.
Similarly, the suspended CBN box was accused of mismanaging the CBN subsidiary, Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending, as well as the Anchor Borrowers Program.
Afunanya, the DSS spokesman, could not be reached for comment on Sunday, as calls to his line were returned as unanswered.
As of the time of posting this article, he had failed to respond to a text message on Emefiele’s detention.
Meanwhile, human rights lawyer Femi Falana, SAN, has claimed that the DSS lacks the legal authority to investigate and prosecute Emefiele.
According to Falana, who sent a message to one of our correspondents, Emefiele should be sent to the custody of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, which has the legal authority to prosecute him.
A few months ago, the State Security Service charged Godwin Emefiele, the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, with terrorism financing, money laundering, and other economic crimes. At the time, the former Buhari administration blocked the SSS’s attempt to arrest, investigate, and prosecute Mr. Emefiele.
However, following President Bola Tinubu’s suspension of Mr. Emefiele as Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, the SSS questioned him in Lagos and flew him to Abuja yesterday. According to media sources, the SSS has begun an inquiry into the suspect. Despite the fact that the SSS initially rejected the arrest, it has since admitted that Mr. Emefiele is in its possession.
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In Dr. Bukola’s case,The Supreme Court held in I v. Federal Republic of Nigeria (2018) 16 NWLR (pt. 1646) 433-434 that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission lacks the jurisdiction to investigate and punish the appellant for violating the requirements of the Code of Conduct Bureau and Tribunal Act. Senator Saraki was released by the Supreme Court primarily for this reason.
In accordance with the legal principle articulated by the Supreme Court in Saraki’s case, the SSS lacks the authority to investigate and prosecute Mr. Emefiele on allegations of money laundering and other economic crimes.” As a result, after probing Emefiele’s alleged involvement in terrorism financing, the SSS should transfer him to the EFCC for further investigation.
