Former Central Bank of Nigeria governor, Godwin Emefiele was Wednesday granted bail by a Federal Capital Territory High Court after six months in Federal government custody.
The court ordered that he should be released to his counsel and must be produced in court when needed.
The presiding judge, Justice Olukayode Adeniyi, also ordered him to deposit all his travel documents with the court’s registrar.
Emefiele after his ouster from the CBN was arrested by the Department of State Services and after being released in October, he was seized by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission on procurement fraud charges.
Mr. Emefiele had approach the court to file a bail application. The EFCC failed to produce him in Court on two occasions.However, the EFCC produced him Wednesday at about 12:30 pm.
Justice Adeniyi had on Monday, reaffirmed his order that the detained former CBN Governor be brought to court today November 8, for the purpose of admitting him to bail.
At the resumed hearing, counsel to Emefiele, Mathew Burkaa, applied that his client be admitted to bail on liberal terms, having been in the custody of security agencies for 151 days. He made this application to Provisions of Section 35 (4a and b) of the 1999 constitution.
While objecting to the bail application, Counsel for the Attorney General of the Federation and the Federal Government, Onyi Koleosho, pointed out that Emefiele was transferred to the custody of the EFCC on October 26, and that date is not up to two months.
He said the court should decline the application for Emefiele’s release in the interest of justice, and to avoid a situation where the scheduled arraignment may interfere with investigations, adding that releasing him will pose further problems and difficulties for the prosecution to get him to attend court next week, for his arraignment. With Channels report.
