A Federal Capital Territory High Court has awarded the cost of N100 million against the Federal Government for incarcerating the former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele, for five months without trial.
The court passed the judgment in the enforcement of a fundamental rights suit filed by Emefiele.
Emefiele’s legal team led by Mathew Burkaa had sued the Federal Government, Attorney-General of the Federation, Executive Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, and the EFCC over his prolonged detention, insisting it was a violation of his fundamental rights to life, personal liberty, freedom of movement and fair hearing.
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He maintained that upon his arrest last year following his suspension by President Bola Tinubu, he was incarcerated by the security agencies for 139 days.
Emefiele insisted he was unlawfully detained for a long while, without being arraigned in court.
He urged the court to order the respondents to pay N1bn as damages for violating his fundamental rights as well as restrain them from rearresting him.
But the respondents countered Emefiele saying the suit ought to commence at the Federal High Court while maintaining that security agencies obtained a 14-day remand order against Emefiele from a Magistrate Court.
Passing his judgment, Justice Olukayode Adeniyi explained that the duty of the court in a fundamental right suit is not to establish if a crime has been committed but to simply enforce the protection of a citizen’s fundamental rights.
Adeniyi dismissed the respondents preliminary objection that the FCT High Court lacked jurisdiction to entertain fundamental rights suit.
Adeniyi held that infringement of fundamental rights is largely a matter of facts and it is the person that asserts that has the duty to prove his assertions.
The court observed that the applicant did not provide any facts relating to the infringement of his right to fair hearing and freedom of movement and did not depose credible facts to prove such transpired.
Adeniyi further concluded that the applicant abandoned his allegation in breach of his right to fair hearing and freedom of movement, by not providing material facts.
On the alleged breach of Emefiele’s right to life, Adeniyi said the former CBN governor did not prove how security agencies threatened to kill him.
“In the present case, the applicant is very much alive,” Adeniyi said, adding that the likelihood of Emefiele’s life being threatened is now academic because he is currently on bail.
But on the alleged breach of Emefiele’s right to personal liberty, the judge observed that Emefiele was in the “protracted detention” of security agencies for five months before he was released upon the orders of the court.
Adeniyi said it was “beyond reasonable” for Emefiele, a Nigerian, to be detained from June 13, 2023 till November, 8 2023.
Adeniyi observed that the federal government, through the Department of State Services defied the Federal High Court Lagos order by detaining him when it was ordered that he be transferred to the Nigeria Correctional Service.
Adeniyi held that the actions of the federal government is a gross violation of Emefiele’s fundamental right to personal liberty.
“In the instant case, this court views the incarceration of the applicant as a gross violation of his fundamental rights to personal liberty,” Adeniyi held, saying the purported remand order obtained by security agencies lacked credibility because it had two separate dates on it.
The judge said records showed that the respondents were only interested in the incarceration of Emefiele while searching for evidence to prosecute him over allegations of money laundering and over alleged N7 billion stamp duty diversion.
The judge held the federal government and its agency needed not to incarcerate Emefiele to investigate his tenure as CBN governor.
“The respondents unlawfully violated the applicant’s constitutional right to personal liberty,” Adeniyi declared.
“The sum of N100 million is hereby awarded in favor of the applicant against the first and fourth respondents jointly and severally,” the judge said.