July 25, 2023, was a day of drama, intrigues and violence at the Federal High Court, Lagos.
Fierce-looking security personnel besieged the Federal High Court and fought themselves.
There was fear, tension and panic as the heavily armed, gun-wielding security officers exchanged blows.
Before the violence, there was an air of expectation in the court as a small crowd waited for the appearance of the former Central Bank Governor, Godwin Emefiele in court.
News had already gone around for some days that Emefiele would be in court on Tuesday.
At around 7:25 am, Emefiele’s relatives, journalists, lawyers, security officials, and other stakeholders were already waiting in the small courtroom for the arrival of the judge.
Although courts were on vacation, Justice Nicholas Oweibo was on ground to preside over the case.
“There should be an end to oppression,” he said, in obvious reference to the government’s reluctance to obey court orders.
But the government’s lawyer told Justice Oweibo that she had not been given the bail application.
“As I stand here, I have not set (my) eyes on it,” she said.
In a short ruling, the judge rejected the Federal Government’s claim that it had not received a copy of the bail application filed by Emefiele and the claim that the former CBN governor was a flight risk.
Justice Oweibo revealed that there was evidence that the government was served.
The judge, therefore, granted Emefiele bail in the sum of N20m, with one surety in the like sum, and ordered that he should be remanded at the Ikoyi Prison, pending the perfection of his bail.
By 11: 08 am, the court was done with the case. Justice Oweibo had ruled that Emefiele be remanded in the custody of the Nigerian Correctional Services, at Ikoyi Prison.
Strangely, the DSS agents blocked the NCS from taking Emefiele into custody.
During the stand-off that ensued, the DSS agents behaved rowdily.
They laid siege to the court and refused to allow anyone to get close to the courtroom as they held Emefiele hostage for several hours.
At this point, the Correctional Centre officials called their commander who rushed to the court in a green pickup van with the inscription, ‘Corrections Squadron Commander.’
His arrival did not make much impact as the DSS prevented him from gaining entry into the courtroom.
Suddenly, a free-for-all between officials of the two agencies began and a Correctional senior ranking official was seriously manhandled by the DSS officials and his uniform torn.
As this was ongoing, the small crowd of litigants, journalists and onlookers condemned the DSS agents’ actions saying that they had presented Nigeria in a bad light.
After the fight, a senior female operative of DSS arrived at the court and had a brief chat with prison officials who later vacated the court without Emefiele.
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