The troubled ex-Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele, has been released upon satisfying the conditions for his bail.
Reports state that Emefiele was freed from the Kuje Correctional Centre on Friday afternoon, having met the conditions set by the Federal Capital Territory High Court.
His release coincided with revelations about his tenure, as a report by Jim Obazee, the special investigator appointed by President Bola Tinubu on July 30 to investigate the CBN under Emefiele, purportedly revealed instances of alleged abuse of office.
According to reports, the former CBN governor is alleged to have employed proxies in the acquisition of Union Bank, and he faces accusations of compromising the procedures leading to the acquisition of Polaris and Keystone banks.
In the period leading up to Obazee’s report, Emefiele faced charges from the Federal Government in the FCT High Court, Abuja, involving six counts related to procurement fraud amounting to N1.6bn. He entered a plea of not guilty.
Justice Hamza Muazu granted Emefiele’s bail request, setting it at N300m with two sureties of equal value, each possessing Certificates of Occupancy for properties in the Maitama district of the FCT.
Additionally, the former governor was required to surrender his passport to the court and was prohibited from leaving the FCT.
One of the counts read, “That you, Godwin Ifeanyi Emefiele, male, adult, sometime in 2018 within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court did use your position as Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria to confer a corrupt advantage on Sa’adatu Ramallan Yaro, a staff of the Central Bank of Nigeria by awarding a contract for the supply of 37 Toyota Hilux Vehicles at the cost of N854,700,000 only to April1616 Investment Ltd, a company in which the said Sa’adatu Ramallan Yaro is a director and thereby committed an offence.”