The Department of State Services, DSS, Thursday, suffered a set-back in its bid to extend the detention of the distraught former Central Bank Governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele.
Justice Hamza Muazu of the Federal Capital Territory High Court sitting in Abuja quashed the request filed by the DSS seeking a 14-day extension of the detention order for embattled Emefiele.
The DSS had premised its application on new evidence it purported to have discovered. The Department’s legal team, according to a report by Channels Television, had, on Wednesday, secretly filed the application which came before the vacation judge Thursday.
But the application fell flat as Justice Muazu dismissed it, describing it as an abuse of court process. The court also ruled that it lacked jurisdiction to entertain the application.
When the Judge questioned the DSS’s counsel, Mr. Victor Ejelonu, on the issue of the court’s jurisdiction to entertain the application, given the exclusive rights of the Magistrate Court to grant detention orders under Sections 293 and 296 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, the counsel opted to withdraw the matter.
Mr. Emefiele was re-arrested by the DSS in the premises of the Federal High Court, Lagos, following his remand in a Correctional Centre while awaiting the fulfilment of his bail conditions granted by Justice Nicholas Oweibo.