The Federal High Court sitting in Abuja has postponed the arraignment of Godwin Emefiele, the suspended governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to August 23 due to the absence of the first and second defendants, who are reportedly ill.
The embattled banker, along with other defendants were charged with an alleged N6.9 billion procurement fraud.
However, only Emefiele appeared in court Thursday.
The matter was postponed to August 23, 2023, by the presiding judge, Justice Hamza Muazu, in response to a request for delay.
Emefiele will be charged with 20 counts of procurement fraud, conspiracy, and providing corrupt benefits to his accomplices together with a female CBN employee – Sa’adatu Yaro and her business, April1616 Investment Limited.
The embattled apex bank leader, who has been detained since he was removed from office on June 9, 2023, was charged with giving Yaro, a director of April 1616 Investment Ltd., corrupt favours.
The activities in question contravene the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act 2000’s Section 19.
Meanwhile, a Federal High Court sitting in Lagos on Thursday struck out the illegal possession of firearms charge against the embattled former Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor Godwin Emefiele following an application by the Federal Ministry of Justice to withdraw it.
Justice Nicholas Oweibo agreed with the Director of Public prosecution(DPP) Mohammed Abubakar who moved the application to withdraw the two-count charge relying on Section 108 of Administration of Criminal Justice Act, 2015.
The defence through its lead counsel, Joseph Daodu (SAN) had argued that the prosecution could not withdraw the charge unless the government purges itself of its disobedience to the court’s July 25 order granting Mr Emefiele bail.
Justice Oweibo, in a short ruling, condemned the conduct of the prosecution .
He said: “The conduct of the prosecution has shown that it doesn’t respect the rule of law.
“Of what benefit will it be to keep the file in the court’s docket when the prosecution has shown disrespectful to the court?
“To stop the embarrassment of the court and to keep its integrity intact, means to strike out this charge which has simply been abandoned for a lack of diligent prosecution.
“Accordingly this charge is hereby struck out for lack of diligent prosecution.”
