TheCable

A federal capital territory (FCT) high court in Abuja has dismissed an application by the Department of State Services (DSS) seeking to further detain Godwin Emefiele, suspended Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) governor, for 14 days.

In the application filed discreetly on Wednesday, the DSS alleged that it has discovered new evidence against the suspended CBN governor.

Although the court is on its annual vacation, the matter came up before Hamza Muazu, a judge, on Thursday.

Muazu asked Victor Ejelonu, DSS counsel, to address the issue of jurisdiction considering that Sections 293 and 296 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act gives exclusive rights to magistrate courts to grant detention orders.

Ejelonu then opted to withdraw the application.

Consequently, the judge struck out the suit.

Emefiele has been in DSS custody since his arrest in June.

On Tuesday, he was arraigned on a two-count charge for “illegal possession” of firearms at a federal high court in Ikoyi and was granted N20 million bail.

Although Nicholas Oweibo, the federal high court judge, had ordered that Emefiele should be kept in custody of the Nigeria Correctional service pending the fulfilment of his bail conditions, officials of the DSS forcefully rearrested the suspended CBN governor.