The Department of State Services (DSS) says Godwin Emefiele is legally detained with them.
The agency says it obtained a detention order to keep the suspended governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria
(CBN) in its custody.
The secret police said the detention order was gotten from a magistrate court immediately after the July 27
court case.
Edward Okpe, a judge at the high court in Abuja, had on July 27 dismissed an application by the DSS seeking to further detain Emefiele for 14 days.
In the application filed by the service, the agency alleged that it has discovered new evidence against the suspended CB governor.
Speaking in an opinion published on
Thursday, Peter Afunanya, DSS spokesperson, said the July 27 court case was dismissed because the agency withdrew the application.
Afunanya said the secret police has always obeyed court orders in the handling of Emefiele’s case.
On the face-off between DSS operatives and prison officials, he said the findings from the preliminary investigation of the incident are “quite shocking”.
“Emefiele was arraigned before Justice Nicholas Oweibo of the federal high court, Ikoyi, Lagos, on 25th July 2023 for illegal possession of arms and ammunition,” the DSS spokesperson said.
“The service had long issued a press statement over the incident that happened at the court between its staff and those of Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS) and pledged to investigate it.
“Though the investigation is ongoing, the preliminary findings are quite shocking considering the ignoble roles played by some public officials.
“As normal with criminal investigations, security agencies re-arrest suspects when there is adequate suspicion of commission of a crime or as may be revealed by an ongoing investigation.
“Emefiele was re-arrested on the basis of this. Even though the re-arrest was tainted by the overzealousness of personnel of the service and NoS, it was nonetheless legally procedural.
“Later, the service applied for an ex parte order at the FCT high court presided by Justice Edward Okpe (and not Justice Mu azu as erroneously and massively reported in the media) to detain Emefiele for 14 days.