Arrest warrant: Court gives Emefiele Jan 25 to appear over $53m debt

Arrest warrant: Court gives Emefiele Jan 25 to appear over $53m debt

 A Federal High Court in Abuja has given former Governor of
Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, until Jan. 25 to appear in
court to explain circumstances surrounding the 53 million dollar-judgment debt
arising from the Pars Club refund.

 

Justice Inyang Ekwo, in a short ruling on Tuesday, gave
Emefiele another opportunity to appear in court in person or an arrest warrant
issued against the ex-CBN governor.

 

The development followed a plea by Emefiele and CBN’s
counsel, Audu Anuga, SAN, that all efforts to ensure that his client appeared
in person on the order of the court were unsuccessful as he was still in
custody.

Anuga informed the court that an affidavit to show cause on
why arrest warrant should not be issued against Emefiele was filed on Oct. 30.

 

 

Justice Ekwo then asked I.A. Nnana, the lawyer who
represented Mr Joe Agi, SAN, the judgment creditor/applicant in the suit, if he
had been served with the affidavit

.

Nnana responded that they were served on Monday, almost at
the close of work and that they would like to react.

The judge, who cautioned Anuga against late filing of
processes, reminded that the matter came up on July 19.

The senior lawyer, however, explained that all efforts were
made until Friday (Oct. 27) to ensure that Emefiele was released on order of
the court but the order was not complied with, which necessitated the filing of
the affidavit.



Anuga, however, told the court that since parties had been
exploring settlement before and the CBN had a new governor, they should be
allowed to explore settlement option.

 

But Justice Ekwo insisted that Emefiele must appear in the
next adjourned day.



“As for the 4th respondent (Emefiele), I have always said,
contempt proceedings follow a person whether the person Is still there or not.

 

“In this case, I have given this particular person so much
liberty, so much leniency and the situation does not seem to change.

 

“I will adjourn the matter because the other side says they
want to react to the process so there is no much talk.

“Order of court must be complied with and even if no one
complies with the order of the court, the court must comply with its order.

“I will give you sufficient time,” he said

 

The judge, consequently, adjourned the matter until Jan. 25
for Emefiele to show cause why arrest warrant should not be issued against him.

 

Recall that in the affidavit deposed to on Emefiele’s behalf
by Jeremiah Utaan, a legal officer in the Legal Department of CBN, he said
Emefiele was willing to appear before the court as directed but for his
continued detention by the Department of State Service (DSS).

 

He said the information was of public knowledge from June 10
till date that had made it impossible for Emefiele to physically appear before
the court on July 19, the last adjourned date.



Utaan, in the affidavit, averred that Emefiele’s absence at
the proceedings was not out of disrespect to the court but rather due to
circumstance beyond his control.

“I verily believe that the cause of justice will not be
served should the Honourable Court proceed to issue a Warrant for the arrest of
Godwin Emefiele,” he said.

The judge had, on July 19, threatened to issue a warrant of
arrest against Emefiele over his failure to appear in court.

 

He said he was minded to exercise a restraint in the
proceeding to give the ex-CBN boss an opportunity to explain himself.

Justice Ekwo had, on Oct. 20, 2022, ordered the CBN governor
to appear in court on Jan. 18 over his alleged refusal to obey the order of the
court for the payment of the judgment debt in favour of a legal practitioner,
Joe Agi, SAN.

 

 

Agi had dragged Linas International Ltd, Minister of
Finance, CBN and Emefiele to court as 1st to 4th judgment debtors respectively,
following an application for garnishee made by him as judgment creditor in the
case.

However, on the Jan. 18, proceedings could not go on as
scheduled when the matter was called, prompting the court to subsequently
adjourned the case until March 20, before it was fixed for June 6 again.

The judge, on June 6, ordered Emefiele to appear before it
on July 19.

 

But President Bola Tinubu, on June 9, suspended him as CBN
governor and he was directed to transfer his responsibilities to the deputy
governor, operations directorate.

No sooner had Emefiele was suspended than the DSS, on June
10, announced his arrest and detention.

It was also reported that Emefiele was arrested and detained
by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on Oct. 26 less than an
hour after the DSS released him.

 

The EFCC was said to be probing him over alleged impropriety
during his term as the head of the apex bank

Source: Arrest warrant: Court gives Emefiele Jan 25 to appear over $53m debt

 - NigerianEye
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