The Federal Government has filed 20 charges against a former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele.
The Director of Public Prosecutions at the Federal Ministry of Justice, Mohammed Bakodo Abubakar made this known to journalists after Tuesday’s proceedings in Abuja.
According to Abubakar, the fresh charges – with 20 counts – were filed at the Federal Capital Territory High Court.
One of the counts accuses Emefiele of “conferring unlawful advantages.”
Also on Tuesday the Federal Government applied to withdraw the “illegal possession of firearms” case it filed against Emefiele, at the Federal High Court sitting in Lagos.
Abubakar told Justice Nicholas Oweibo that the application followed the result of further investigations.
But defence counsel, Joseph Daudu (SAN), opposed him, arguing that because the government was in disobedience of the court’s order granting Emefiele bail, its application could not be taken.
On July 25, the judge admitted Emefiele to a N20 million bail on a two-count charge of illegal possession of firearms and ammunition.
He also ordered he be remanded at the Ikoyi Correctional Centre, pending the fulfillment of his bail conditions.
The Department of State Services rearrested Emefiele after fighting off prison officials on the court’s premises.
President Bola Tinubu, who is embarking on the boldest reforms in Africa’s biggest economy in more than a decade, has launched a probe of the CBN under Emefiele after criticising its policies at his inauguration in May, especially moves to prop up the naira currency.
It was not immediately clear what the new charges were.
But court documents deposed by the Attorney General’s Office last month showed that Emefiele faced criminal breach of trust and criminal misappropriation of funds charges, among others, which carry long jail terms.
Emefiele, who was detained on June 10, a day after Tinubu suspended him, pleaded not guilty to a charge of possessing a firearm.
“We have filed a matter with comprehensive charges” and “we are withdrawing the (firearm) case at the Federal High Court in Lagos,” a government lawyer said on Tuesday.
Emefiele has challenged his detention and filed an application for bail.