ON THE LEGALITY OF GODWIN EMIEFELE’S REARREST, HAVING EARLIER BEEN GRANTED BAIL

By

JESUTEGA ONOKPASA

What transpired at the Federal High Court, Lagos on Tuesday, 25 July, 2023, regarding the rearrest of suspended Central Bank Governor, Godwin Emiefele, is legally complicated and not as simple as the currently trending narrative of the Department of State Services, DSS, breaking the law by snatching a citizen from the lawful custody of the Nigerian Prisons Service, NPS, that is being canvassed by some.

It was reported that the DSS had a fresh warrant to arrest Mr Emiefele with respect to an entirely different matter from the illegal possession of firearms charge upon which he was granted bail.

In law, that you are out on bail does not amount to the court having made you into an outlaw beyond and above arrest in respect of other crime(s).

Nevertheless, if indeed, the DSS had a warrant of arrest with respect to a different charge, it would most likely had been granted before the one remanding him in the custody of the NPS.

In that case, the NPS would be deemed to be entitled (actually obligated) to take him into its custody, since the latter order would had superceded the earlier one warranting the DSS to arrest him (what is an “arrest” other than a “taking into custody”, anyway?).

The DSS should then require a fresh order to have him subsequently transfered from the custody of the NPS to its own.

If, however, Emiefele had actually PERFECTED his bail in court before the DSS were able to arrest him, as it appears, then he was not even liable to be taken to prison, however temporarily, anymore, therefore no longer the business of the NPS, at all, and, the DSS would have been entitled to seize him because, in that case, the warrant in their possession would, funny enough, still be quite valid!

Emiefele can hire all the lobbyists he can find (with money he could not have legitimately earned as Central Bank Governor) but he almost upended our national economy through quite heinous policies and diabolical excesses that even led to the death of scores of Nigerians and there are those of us who will not forget that.

If he has other crimes to answer for as alleged by the DSS, he is most certainly neither insulated from arrest nor immune from prosecution and is liable to be arrested, investigated and prosecuted for them all.

That said, what played out in court today was a complete disgrace, for it featured two law enforcement agencies that are part and parcel of the same government sparring in a manner disclosing extremely egregious and decidedly unprofessional significances.

Not only was such conduct totally unacceptable but more especially so having occured within the premises of a court of law.

Needless to say, but scariest of all, it could have had potentially quite horrid consequences for public safety had the situation further deteriorated.

*Onokpasa, a lawyer, was a member of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Presidential Campaign Council and writes from Abuja.