CSO gives EFCC and Tinubu seven-day deadline to free Emefiele

Godwin Emefiele, the beleaguered former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, must be released from the Economic and Financial Crime Commission’s detention, according to a Nigerian civil society organisation.

At a “Free Emefiele Rally” on Thursday in Abuja, Yusuf Maje, Convener of the Coalition of Civil Society for Defence of Human Rights, disclosed this.

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EFCC, however, detained him right away once he was freed from the DSS’s custody.

Maje responded to the news by calling Emefiele’s struggles under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration “a witch hunt.”

The organisation called the EFCC’s detention of Emefiele irrational and an excessive display of enthusiasm.

It further stated that Tinubu has seven days to either free Emefiele or file charges against him.

We argue that making another arrest of him would put him in double danger. The EFCC’s excessive enthusiasm and the misuse of limited government funds to put an innocent citizen through this kind of trauma only “to teach him a lesson” are unacceptable. People in the public are concerned that the EFCC, instead of being the anti-corruption organisation it should be, has allowed itself to be used as a tool of oppression.

“We firmly declare that it is intolerable and will face strong opposition when Godwin Emefiele is thrown around like a football on the pitch by several government agencies for the sake of an investigation. Since Nigeria is no longer ruled by a military dictatorship where the rights of defenceless civilians can be arbitrarily suspended, we oppose this Gestapo-style behaviour. Granted, President Tinubu is making every effort to eradicate corruption from the nation and put it back on the path of sustainable development and economic expansion with his Renewed Hope Agenda.

Finally, we hereby demand that Godwin Emefiele be charged in court or released from EFCC custody within the next seven days. The vast majority of our Coalition will be a problem for the federal government to deal with across the nation, he stated, in the improbable event that this demand is not satisfied.