Court threatens to issue arrest warrant against Emefiele over $53m Paris Club refund

The suspended Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, has been threatened with another arrest by Justice Inyang Ekwo of the Federal High Court, Abuja over his failure to appear in court over the Paris Club refund case.

Emefiele, as the governor of the CBN, Linas International Ltd, Minister of Finance and the apex bank, had been ordered to pay legal counsel, Joe Agi, a judgement sum of $70 million for his role in the Paris Club refund.

However, Emefiele paid Agi $17 million out of the total judgement sum. Agi went back to court to demand the balance of $53 million.

Justice Ekwo, on October 20, 2022, had ordered Emefiele to appear in court on January 18, 2023, to give reasons CBN is yet to pay the balance.

The case, which involves CBN, Emefiele, Linas International Ltd and the Minister of Finance as defendants 1 to 4, was later postponed to March 20.

Afterwards, his appearance was adjourned to June 6 and later fixed for July 19, but before then, Emefiele had been arrested by the Department of State Security (DSS) on June 9.

READ ALSO:DSS says ‘overzealous charge and bail’ lawyers fighting for Emefiele don’t know the law

The judge threatened to issue an arrest warrant against Emefiele for failing to appear before the court, but his counsel, Audu Anuga, SAN, said his arrest by the DSS has made it difficult to communicate the court’s order.

Anuga, while responding to the judge’s question on Wednesday to give reasons for the court not to issue the warrant, said: “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 only on public communication that the 4th respondent is incarcerated and have been unable to communicate with him.”

He further stated that: “But the public information now is that he has been suspended. An opportunity has to be given to him to comply.”

When queried on how long the court has to wait for Emefiele to make himself available to the court, considering the case has been on since 2017, Anuga said a release order has been given by a separate court for Emefiele, but he remains in custody.

“My lord, we are at the mercy of the court,” he said, explaining further that: “But there is an intervening event, as we have not had the privilege to see him.”

Anuga stated, “The last opportunity my lord gave to the 4th respondent has not been communicated to him,” adding, “I feel opportunity should be given so that this can be communicated.”

While the court has adjourned Emefiele’s appearance to October 31, his legal counsel told Justice Ekwo that the court can take action against the suspended CBN governor if he doesn’t show up.

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