Suspended Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria CBN, Godwin Emefiele is in another trouble as a Federal High Court, Abuja, on Wednesday, threatened to issue a warrant of arrest against him over his failure to appear in court to explain circumstances surrounding the 53 million dollar-judgment debt arising from the Pars Club refund.
The trial judge,Justice Inyang Ekwo, who ordered Emefiele to appear on the next adjourned date, said he was minded to exercise restraint in the proceeding to give the ex-CBN boss an opportunity to explain himself.
Emefiele’s Counsel, Audu Anuga, SAN, had prayed the court to give his client another opportunity as they had been unable to reach him since the last order, directing him to appear in court.
He told the court that Emefiele, who was suspended as CBN governor, had been in detention.
Anuga said all efforts to reach him to communicate the directive of the court were unsuccessful.
” We made an effort to see how we can communicate with the 4th respondent ( Emefiele) but the 3rd respondent ( CBN) was unable to communicate with the 4th respondent.
” We rely on public communication that 4th respondent is incarcerated and have been unable to communicate with him” , Anuga said.
Anuga asked the judge if Emefiele could act on behalf of the CBN given the fact that he has been suspended, Justice Ekwo stated that the CBN had no case to answer saying that Emefiele was sued in his personal capacity.
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.
But the proceedings could not go on as scheduled on January 18 when the matter was called, prompting the court to subsequently adjourn the case till 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 Emefiele was on June 9, suspended by President Bola Tinubu and directed to transfer his responsibilities to the Deputy Governor, operations directorate.
Shortly after his suspension,he was arrested and detained by the the Department of State Services (DSS)
Ekwo however,on the grounds of plea by Anuga to give Emefiele final opportunity to appear in court exercised restraint on the arrest warrant .
He consequently, adjourned the matter until Oct. 31 for the CBN and Emefiele to show why an arrest warrant should not be issued against the former CBN governor.
“Upon listening to counsel, I am minded to exercise restraint in this proceeding to give the 4th respondent an opportunity to explain himself to me on the next adjourned date,”
Emefiele’s trouble began with an alleged $70 million judgment against Linas International Ltd for the lawyer’s (Joe Agi) assistance with the Paris Club refund.
The suspended CBN governor was said to have only released $17 million, leaving an unpaid balance of $53 million.
Consequent upon this,the court on Jan. 23, 2020, ruled that Emefiele must appear “to be examined on oath.
