Justice Nicholas Oweibo of the Federal High Court in Lagos State has rejected the Federal Government’s claim that it is yet to receive a copy of the bail application filed by the suspended Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele, in his alleged gun possession trial.
The judge held that there was evidence that the government had been served.
The bail application was filed by Emefiele’s lawyers, led by Joseph B. Daudu, SAN.
Daudu had urged the court to hear the defendant’s application seeking bail on self-recognition, noting that his client had fulfilled all the conditions necessary to make the application ripe for hearing.
Daudu asked the court to end what he described as the “oppression of his client by the Department of State Security”, which arrested him and hear the bail application.
“There should be an end to oppression,” he added.
But the government’s lawyer, a Deputy Director of Prosecution, N.B. Jones, told the court that she had not been furnished with the bail application.
“As I stand here, I have not set eyes on it,” she said.
Emefiele is standing trial on a two-count charge of illegal possession of a single-barrel shotgun (JOJEFF MAGNUM 8371) without a licence on June 15, 2023 at Ikoyi.
Emefiele, on Tuesday, pleaded not guilty to the two counts of alleged illegal possession of firearms and ammunition when he was arraigned before the Federal High Court in Lagos.
Emefiele is facing two counts bordering on illegal possession of firearms and ammunition preferred against him by the Federal Ministry of Justice before the vacation judge, Justice Nicholas Oweibo.
The ministry of justice in the charge accused Emefiele of possessing a single-barreled shotgun (JOJEFF MAGNUM 8371) without a licence.
The agency also accused him of illegally being in possession of 23 rounds of live ammunition (cartridges) without a licence.
FMJ said that the defendant committed the offences on June 15, 2023, at No. 3b Iru Close, Ikoyi area of Lagos.
According to the charge, the offence committed contravened Section 4 and Section 8 of the Firearms Cap F28 laws of the Federation Act 2004 and punishable under Section 27 (1)(b) (I),(II) of the same Act. PUNCH
