The court had repeatedly ordered the EFCC, which recently took custody of Mr Emefiele from the State Security Service (SSS), to either produce him in court or release him.
The Federal Capital Territory High Court in Abuja, on Wednesday, granted bail to the embattled former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele.
Mr Emefiele, who is facing months-long investigations over corruption allegations, attended Wednesday’s proceedings, after his last public appearance in court in August.
He was brought to court from the custody of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), based on an earlier order of the court.
The judge, Olukayode Adeniyi, ordered that the former CBN chief must be produced in court for arraignment on 15 November. But details of the charges on which he is scheduled to be arraigned are not yet clear.
The court also ordered him to submit all his travel documents to the court’s registrar.
The court gave the order in a ruling on the bail application which Mr Emefiele filed under his broader fundamental rights enforcement suit.
He filed the suit to challenge his almost five-month-long detention.
Ruling on the bail application, Mr Adeniyi held that the applicant had been detained beyond the legal limits.
He held that the detention was against the provision of section 46 (2) of the Nigerian constitution.
Although the constitution limits detention period of a suspect to maximum of 48 hours, the Nigerian law permits law enforcement agencies to extend the detention period with the permission of a court of law.
The Stare Security Service (SSS), which arrested Mr Emefiele on 10 June, claimed to have obtained a court order to prolong his detention, before recently transferring his custody to the EFCC to continue investigating the case against him.
But Mr Adeniyi ruled on Wednesday: ”There must be an end to number of days in detention.”
The judge added: ”The applicant is hereby released on bail to his lawyers, Matthews Burkaa, SAN, Magaji Ibrahim, SAN, and J J Usman, SAN.
”They must bring him to court on 15 November for his arraignment.
“Secondly, he must deposit his travelling documents with the registrar of the court.”
Mr Emefiele was arrested on 10 June, a day after being suspended from office over undisclosed corruption allegations.
He is said to be facing investigations, which EFCC took over from the SSS, over multidimensional corruption allegations against him.
The presidency said he resigned from office while he was in SSS custody.
Mr Adeniyi granted Mr Emefiele bail on Wednesday, after ordering EFCC on two previous occasions, to either produce him in court or release him unconditionally.
The judge first issued the order on 2 November.
He repeated the order on Monday.
Background
Mr Emefiele was first detained by the SSS on 10 June, the day after he was suspended as CBN governor.
SSS only recently transferred him to EFCC in late October.
For the over fout months that he was in SSS custody, the SSS did not disclose the offences it was investigating him for.
But in July, the agency arraigned him on two counts of “illegal possession” of firearms and live ammunition at the Federal High Court, Lagos.
After arraigning him on the two charges on 25 July, the SSS, in August, withdrew the charges.
Based on SSS investigations, the office of the Attorney-General of the Federation, again, charged the former central bank chief with N6.9 billion in corruption charges at the FCT High Court in Abuja in August.
But the arraignment was rescheduled on different occasions, a development that triggered speculations that Mr Emefiele was in plea bargain talks with the government over the charges filed against him.
Earlier this month, the AGF, Lateef Fagbemi, denied signing any plea agreement with Mr Emefiele, which tallied with an earlier exclusive disclosure by an official of the Federal Ministry of Justice to PREMIUM TIMES that such plea agreement was not yet on the table.
But the case has not come up in court since the failed arraignment on 23 August.
However, some said the delay in the commencement of Mr Emefiele’s trial may be due to the multi-dimensional corruption cases he is involved in.
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So far, there has not been any official disclosure of the allegations against him, apart from the charges pending at the FCT High Court.
It is not clear if the court sitting scheduled to come up on 15 November is on the pending or fresh charges.
In the case pending in court, Mr Emefiele was charged alongside Sa’adatu Ramallan-Yaro, a CBN staff member, and her company, April 1616 Investment Limited.
Mr Emefiele and Mrs Ramalan-Yaro were accused of conspiracy and procurement fraud involving as much as N6.9 billion.
The charges alleged that Mr Emefiele conferred corrupt advantages on Ms Ramalan-Yaro, using her firm, April 1616 Investment Limited, to execute several procurement contracts spanning years.
The government alleged that the defendants committed the offences by awarding contracts to Mrs Ramalan-Yaro’s company for the supply of cars.
The defendants, allegedly through the corrupt transactions, purchased a fleet of about 100 posh vehicles and armoured buses worth about N6.9 billion.
The alleged corrupt transactions took place between 2018 and 2020, according to the charges.
