Emefiele’s Custody: DSS Operatives Rough Handle Prisons Officials
The premises of Federal High Court in Ikoyi, Lagos, temporarily assumed a mini-battle field on Tuesday as Department of State Services (DSS) operatives took on officials of the Nigeria Correctional Centre (NCC) over the custody of suspended Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Godwin Emefiele,
The free for all display occurred when heavily armed DSS officials rough handled their NCS counterparts over which organisation should keep Emefiele pending the fulfilment of his bail conditions.
Trouble started after Justice Nicholas Oweibo had granted a N20 million bail to the suspended CBN governor. The bail conditions include producing a surety with landed property within the jurisdiction of the court in Ikoyi, Lagos.
The Court also ordered him to deposit his passport in addition to producing a Civil servant not below Grade Level 16 to perfect bail.
Accordingly, Justice Oweibo directed that Emefiele should be remanded in the Correctional Centre pending the fulfilment of his bail conditions.
However, instead of obeying the order as issued by the Court, the DSS attempted whisking Emefiele away but the move was stoutly resisted by NCS officials.
Amid the toxic exchanges, the armed DSS operatives, who outnumbered the prison officials, took laws into their hands and went physical in a bid to exert superiority and also execute their plans of rearresting the embattled CBN Governor.
In the process, an unidentified senior prison official was roughened up by the rampaging secret police operatives with his uniform torn to expose the white inner singlet.
In the ensuing confusion, lawyers and journalists covering the matter ran for their dear lives to avoid incurring the wrath of the DSS officials who had positioned themselves in strategic positions within and outside the court premises to prevent Emefiele from exiting the Court with the NCS officials.
The suspended apex Bank Governor has been in DSS detention since June, and was finally arraigned in court on Tuesday, July 25, 2023.
