It is now four days since the suspended governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, was arrested by the Department of State Services (DSS).
Development Diaries reports that Emefiele was arrested on 10 June, hours after President Bola Tinubu suspended him from office.
The DSS confirmed his arrest on their Twitter handle while cautioning the media to ‘apply utmost caution in the reportage and narratives’ concerning the development.
The secret service had in 2022 accused the CBN governor of several offences. In December, It also demanded a court order to arrest him on allegations of ‘financing terrorism, fraudulent activities, and economic crimes of national security dimension’.
However, the request was rejected by the Federal High Court in Abuja because the security agency failed to present sufficient evidence to justify issuing an arrest warrant.
Meanwhile, a human rights lawyer, Femi Falana, has argued that DSS does not possess the jurisdiction to investigate and prosecute Emefiele on charges of money laundering.
Falana pointed out that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has this prosecutorial jurisdiction.
Development Diaries had in January 2023 reported that the anti-corruption agencies ought to have carried out investigations on allegations made against the CBN governor.
This is the route the DSS should take at the moment, rather than detaining him for over 48 hours.
According to Section 35 of the 1999 constitution, anybody who is arrested by any of the security agencies, be it police or DSS, should be charged to court where there is a court within a radius of 40 kilometres, if not, the person should be charged within 48 hours.
By this, any security agency that detains a suspect beyond the constitutional provision or does not have a court order to hold on to a suspect beyond 48 hours is acting against the law of the land.
Development Diaries calls on the DSS to avail the public details of its findings, while it makes sure to carry out its investigations within the ambit of the law.
Photo source: Godwin Emefiele
