By Modupe Gbadeyanka
President Bola Tinubu has been urged not to treat the suspended Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr Godwin Emefiele, like how the former National Security Adviser (NSA), Mr Sambo Dasuki, was treated by the immediate past President, Mr Muhammadu Buhari.
Mr Dasuki, who served under former President Goodluck Jonathan, was kept in custody for most of Mr Buhari’s 8-year tenure despite court orders releasing him.
Mr Emefiele, who wanted to wrestle the All Progressives Congress presidential ticket (APC) with Mr Tinubu, was asked to leave his position about a month after the latter took over.
He was arrested last month by the Department of State Services (DSS) on allegations bordering on financing terrorism.
After the agency kept him for weeks without trial, a court directed it to release him or file a suit against him. He was later charged to court on allegations bordering on illegally possessing a firearm.
The latest suit against the banker has brought up issues, and the Conference Of Nigeria Parties (CNPP) and a coalition of civil society groups under their umbrella association, the Coalition Of National Civil Society Organisations (CNCSOs), have called on Mr Tinubu “to prove to Nigerians that he is, indeed, a democrat by ending the All Progressives Congress (APC) invented script of detention without trial, using bogus allegations to keep suspected political enemies in detention indefinitely.”
According to a statement jointly signed by the Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the CNPP, Mr James Ezema, and the National Secretary of the CSOs, Mr Ali Abacha, “Playing the same APC card against Emefiele will clearly portray the President in bad light after pledging to uphold the rule of law in his June 12 message to Nigerians.”
They noted that “detaining the suspended CBN Governor for over a month without trial, only to charge him for illegal possession of firearms and ammunition at a time the court has already ordered his release is totally against the principles of the rule of law, fairness, and justice that Mr President has preached since May 29.
“The charges against Emefiele followed the same old tricks of the APC government, invented in 2015, to detention citizens without trial,” the groups said.
“If President Tinubu is truly a democrat as he has continued to preach, his government must not adopt the APC’s eight-year-old brutal actions against suspected political enemies,” they noted.
