NAIJA NEWS
The push for the release of the suspended governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, has intensified as more Senior Advocates of Nigeria(SAN) have described his continuous detention at the Department of State Services (DSS) as a shame to the intelligence community.
Naija News recalls that the DSS filed a charge of illegal possession of firearms against Emefiele last week after a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja declared Emefiele’s arrest and detention an infringement of his fundamental rights.
The court had subsequently asked that he be released in two days or be charged.
However, more lawyers and civil society organisations have faulted the continuous detention of the suspended CBN governor.
According to some of these lawyers, the unlawful possession of firearms should not be the kind of case the DSS should be wasting taxpayers’ money on.
They said illegal firearm possession is a charge that even the police can handle.
Speaking with Vanguard, a law professor, Sam Erugo (SAN), said: “The charge for illegal possession of firearms is undoubtedly an afterthought; it suggests that the DSS had no justifiable reason to arrest Mr. Emefiele in the first place.
“It means that after the illegal arrest, the DSS has been searching for a charge to justify the arrest.
“With all the noise since last year about Emefiele’s crimes affecting national security, it is surprising that DSS will detain him for one month without any charge and had to wait for court orders before coming up with a spurious charge.
“The action of the DSS is condemnable as a clear affront to the rule of law and in breach of Emefiele’s fundamental human rights guaranteed under the 1999 Constitution, particularly, his right to personal liberty, fair hearing, and freedom of movement.
