Suspended Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Godwin Emefiele has pleaded not guilty before a Federal High Court sitting Lagos, to a charge of illegal possession of firearms.
Information Nigeria reports that Emefiele arrived the Court in the early hours of Tuesday (9:20am) for his alleged gun possession trial.
Emefiele is standing trial on a two-count charge of possessing a single-barrel shotgun (JOJEFF MAGNUM 8371) without a licence.
The Federal Government, which is prosecuting him, maintained that the offence was contrary to Section 4 of the Firearms Act, 2004, and punishable under Section 27 (1b) of the same Act.
In the second count, the suspended CBN Governor was accused of having in his possession 123 rounds of live ammunition (Cartridges) without a licence, which was contrary to Section 8 of the Firearms Act 2004 and punishable under Section 27 (1)(b)(il) of the same Act.
Meanwhile, the Lagos Court rejected the Federal Government’s claim that it had not received a copy of the bail application filed by Emefiele, in his alleged gun possession trial.
In a short ruling on the issue, Justice Nicholas Oweibo held that there was evidence that the government was served.
The bail application was filed by Emefiele’s lawyers led by Joseph Dauda (SAN).
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Dauda had asked the court to hear the application seeking bail on self recognizance, noting that his client had fulfilled all the conditions necessary to make the application ripe for hearing.
He furthered that the proof of service endorsed by the office of the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) was in the court’s file.
The lawyer also asked the court to end the oppression of his client by the Department of State Security (DSS) which arrested him and hear the bail application.
“There should be an end to oppression,” Dauda said.
However, FG’s lawyer, a Deputy Director of Prosecution, Nkiru Jones-Nebo, told Oweibo that she had not set eyes on the application as there is currently no AGF in the country after the tenure of the last administration lapsed.
“We have scrutinised even through the agency the defendant is been detained but we could not find any.
“I have not set my eye on this application. I am yet to receive and after we receive it, we would want to respond to it.”
“With due respect to the court we are seeking for a date to enable us respond both to the issues of law and the facts contained in the application which I am just seeing this morning,” she said.
The arguments prompted Justice Oweibo to write a ruling where he dismissed the FG’s objections.
