Yesterday, a Federal High Court that was sitting in Lagos set the hearing date for an application that seeks to stop the prosecution of the suspended governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele, for the 15th of August.
On the same day, the court will also hear a motion from the federal government seeking to appeal the bail that was granted to Mr. Emefiele on July 25. The application will be heard on the same day.
The date was set by the trial judge, Justice Nicholas Oweibo, after he listened to the parties’ arguments over whether or not the case is ready for hearing or to allow the defence to respond to the prosecution’s supplementary counter affidavit, which was served on the defence in court just before the proceedings began. The parties were arguing about whether or not they were ready for hearing.
In his decision regarding whether or not the applications were ready to be heard, the judge noted that the application of the prosecution had been concluded and was ready to be heard. However, because the defence had not responded to the further counter affidavit that was served on him in court, the judge decided that it would be best for the applications to be taken jointly on the same day.
As a consequence of this, the court has postponed the hearing of all of the applications to the 15th of August.
Emefiele is going to trial for a pair of counts that border on “illegal possession” of firearms.
