Godwin Emefiele, the former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), pleaded not guilty on Monday to charges related to the unlawful acquisition of an Abuja property containing 753 housing units.
Emefiele entered his “not-guilty” plea to all eight counts of fraud and forgery filed against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
Following Emefiele’s plea, prosecution counsel Mr. Rotimi Oyedepo (SAN) urged the court for an accelerated hearing, citing the EFCC’s establishment Act and the need to avoid unnecessary delays.
He also requested a trial commencement date and asked that Emefiele be remanded in a correctional centre’s custody.
In response, Emefiele’s lawyer, Mr. Matthew Burkaa (SAN), informed the court that he had filed a bail application for the defendant on June 13, arguing that since the prosecution had not filed a counter-affidavit, it should be presumed they did not oppose the bail application.
He drew the court’s attention to the fact that the defendant is already being tried by the prosecution in three other cases and this is the fourth, adding that Emefiele was granted bail in the three cases.
Delivering the ruling, Justice Yusuf Halilu held that bail is constitutional and that a defendant is presumed innocent until proven otherwise.
The judge, who observed that the most serious offence in the land is treasonable felony, noted that the court had, on several occasions, admitted defendants to bail.
“I have seen the charge filed against the defendant. Although the defendant did not file counter, he however raised some concerns in some parts of the affidavit in support of the application and those issues are hereby struck out,” the judge held.
In granting Emefiele bail, the judge also took into account that Emefiele had not jumped bail previously granted by Justice Maryanne Anenih and Justice Hamza Muazu.
As part of the conditions attached to the new bail, Justice Halilu ruled that the defendant’s travel documents, already before Justice Muazu, would be retained, and that the defendant must provide two sureties who must own landed property within the jurisdiction of the court worth N2 billion.
The sureties in addition must sign an undertaking to always ensure Emefiele is in court during the trial and will be jailed if the defendant jumps bail or forfeit the property.
Responding, Burkaa urged the court to release the defendant to the defence team for at least seven days to enable the defendant perfect his bail.
Oyedepo, however, objected, saying it would amount to variation of the bail.
He claimed that the conditions of the bail is not something the defendant would find difficult to meet.
The judge, however, ordered that Emefiele has till Wednesday to perfect the bail or be remanded in the Kuje Correctional Centre, Abuja.
Meanwhile, the court fixed July 11 for commencement of trial.
Earlier, Emefiele through his lawyer is challenging the court’s jurisdiction to entertain the suit on the grounds that he was not in anyway linked to the charge.
The said property the former CBN boss is being tried is located at Plot 109, Cadastral Zone C09, Lokogoma District, Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, measures 150,462.86 SQM and comprises 753 housing units.
Persecondnews recalls that a High Court of the FCT had in 2024 ordered the forfeiture of the said property to the federal government over claim that the estate forms proceed of crime.
Emefiele had approached the court to challenge the forfeiture order of the court.
While the case is currently pending at the Court of Appeal, the anti-graft agency, on May 30, filed a fresh charge against Emefiele and one Eric Ocheme, said to be a large.
The charge no: CR/358/2025, borders on alleged having control of property reasonably suspected to be unlawfully obtained.
The offence is punishable under Section 319 of the Penal Code Law.
Besides the housing estate, the two defendants are also charged with unlawfully keeping in their possession billions of naira in proxy accounts in Zenith Bank.
In count one of the charge, Emefiele and Ocheme are being accused of knowingly having within their control the housing estate suspected to be unlawfully obtained contrary to the law.
While in count two, they were alleged to knowingly have in their possession the sum of N167 million domiciled in Kelvito Integrated Services’ account no: 1016232915, in count three they were alleged to have held the sum of N1.23 billion in the same account.
According to the anti-graft agency, the said sums were said to be reasonably suspected to have been unlawfully obtained.
In another count, they were also alleged to have in their control another sum of N2.9 billion domiciled in Kelvito Integrated Services’ account No: 1016232915 domiciled with Zenith Bank Plc.
In count five, the commission stated that the defendants between January and December 2022, knowingly had under their control the total sum of N1.98 billion domiciled in Kelvito Integrated Services’ account no: 1016232915 domiciled with Zenith Bank Plc, which sum is reasonably suspected to have been unlawfully obtained.
In other counts, they were also linked to the sum of N900 million and N600 million in Ifedigo Integrated Services’ account no: 1210750237 domiciled with Zenith Bank.
Meanwhile, in count eight, Emefiele was said to have in January 2021, forged a document titled, “Irrevocable Power of Attorney Between MG Properties Limited and H and Y Business Global Limited” with the intention of causing it to be believed that the said titled document was executed by or by the authority of H and Y Business Global Limited.
The offences, according to the EFCC, contravene the provisions of Sections 319, 362 and 364 of the Penal Code.
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