President Muhammadu Buhari on 19th January 2023, received a team from the Arab Bank for Economic Development (BADEA) led by its Director General, Dr. Sidi Ould Tah, and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Godwin Emefiele to the presidential villa.
This is Emefiele's second meeting with the President since he returned to the country on 12th January 2023, after he had left the country following the investigation of allegations against him by the Department of State Services (DSS) on financing corruption and terrorism. “You are welcome back. “I am grateful that you are well received,” Buhari told Emefiele during the meeting at the State House.
Weeks earlier, the DSS has sought a court order to arrest Emefiele over alleged “acts of financing terrorism, fraudulent activities and economic crimes of national security dimension.” but was denied by the Federal High Court in Abuja.
On October 20, 2022, Justice Inyang Ekwo sitting in the Federal High Court in Abuja summoned Emefiele over the $53m judgment debt arising from the Paris Club refund.
The court ordered him to appear on Wednesday, January 18, 2023, as the hearing date. However, Emefiele filed an appeal against the FHC ruling saying that Justice Ekwo erred in law and occasioned a miscarriage of justice when he made an order compelling his attendance in court for the $53 million debt.
Wednesday’s proceedings could not go on as planned when the matter was called, making the court adjourned the case till March 20, 2023.
