The suspended governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele, has pleaded not guilty to the two-count charges leveled against him by the State Security Service at the Federal High Court sitting in Lagos.
Emefiele clad in cream jalabia entered the dock in his hand with a big red KJV bible.
Emefiele was charged to court for having one Single Barrel shot Gun and One Hundred and Twenty-Three Rounds of live ammunition without a license.
Following the not-guilty plea, his lawyer, Joseph Dawodu, SAN informed the court that Emefiele has been in incarceration for the past four weeks urging the court to grant him bail.
In a counter-reaction, the deputy director of prosecutions at the office of the attorney general of the federation, N.B. Jones says they are yet to be served with the bail application and that they seek to give a formal response to the bail request.
He noted that it’s the Solicitor General that is standing for the AGF while urging the court to allow the prosecutor to respond from the point of law.
The Federal Government, which is prosecuting him, maintained that the offence was contrary to Section 4 of the Firearms Act, 2004, and punishable under Section 27 (1b) of the same Act.
In the second count, the suspended CBN Governor was accused of having in his possession 123 rounds of live ammunition (Cartridges) without a license, which was contrary to Section 8 of the Firearms Act 2004 and punishable under Section 27 (1)(b)(il) of the same Act.
