Emefiele was arraigned on Monday by the federal government alongside his co-defendant, Henry Omole, before Rahmon Oshodi, a judge at the Ikeja high court.
The two defendants pleaded not
guilty to the 26-count charges preferred against them.
On the first count, the former
CBN governor was accused of abuse of office between 2022 and 2023, in Lagos, an
offence punishable under “Section 73 of the Criminal Laws of Lagos State,
2011”.
Emefiele was also accused of
arbitrarily allocating foreign exchange in the “aggregate sum of
$2,136,391,737.33 without bids, which act is prejudicial to the rights of
Nigerians”.
In the second count, the federal
government alleged that between 2020 and 2021, Emefiele “directed to be done in
abuse of the authority of your office, as the Governor, Central Bank of
Nigeria, an arbitrary act to wit: allocating foreign exchange in the aggregate
sum of $291,945,785.59, without bids, which act is prejudicial to the rights of
Nigerians”.
In
the third count, Emefiele was accused of arbitrarily “allocating foreign
exchange in the aggregate sum of $1,769,254,793.16, which act is prejudicial to
the rights of Nigerians”.
Emefiele’s co-defendant was
accused of accepting the sum of $110,000 on behalf of the former CBN governor
as “reward for allocating foreign exchange by the Central Bank in favour of
Raja Punjab’s employer”.
During the court proceedings on
Monday, A. Labi-Lawal, counsel to Emefiele, prayed the court to grant his
client bail on self recognition with liberal terms, pending the determination
of the case.
Labi-Lawal
said Emefiele had complied with the bail conditions granted him by Hamza Muazu,
judge of the federal capital territory (FCT) high court.
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He
added that the charges were bailable offences and not a capital offence.
Labi-Lawal also urged the court
to extend bail to Omole, the second defendant.
“Though the first defendant was
granted administrative bail by the prosecuting authority, he is seeking bail
based on self recognition and ready to attend court proceedings,” he said.
“The
court should also take into consideration the status of the first defendant as
a former CBN governor of the country.”
However, Rotimi Oyedepo, EFCC
counsel, did not oppose the bail application moved by the defence counsel.
Oyedepo
urged the court to exercise its discretion in granting bail to the defendants.
After hearing the arguments of
both counsels, Oshodi, the trial judge, ruled that Emefiele be remanded in EFCC
custody, while Omole should be in the Ikoyi correctional centre.
The
judge adjourned the case to April 11 for ruling on the determination of the
bail applications and the commencement of the trial.
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