Court orders DSS to grant Emefiele access to lawyers, family members

An Abuja High Court sitting at Maitama, on Friday, ordered the Department of State Services (DSS) and its Director General, to grant the suspended Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, who has been in detention since last Saturday, immediate access to his lawyers and family members.

Justice Hamza Muazu issued the order, following a fundamental right enforcement suit that was filed by Emefiele’s team of lawyers, led by a former President of the Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, Mr. Joseph Daudu, SAN.

Daudu, SAN, told the court that he wrote letters to the DSS, seeking access to his client to enable the legal team to take necessary instructions from him.

He told the court that one such letter was received by the security agency on June 14.

The former NBA President lamented that the DSS spurned his requests to have an audience with the embattled suspended CBN governor who is in its custody.

However, counsel for the DSS, Mr. I. Awo, denied the claim that the agency declined to grant Emefiele access to his lawyers and family members.

Awo assured the court that the agency would comply with its order, even as the court adjourned further hearing on Emefiele’s fundamental right enforcement suit, to June 19.