President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday received the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
In a video clip of the development, Buhari who was seated at table across where others were seated, was heard heartily welcoming back the CBN governor to the country with Emefiele thanking him in riposte.
The second encounter was at the frontage of the office after one of the meetings. Buhari was heard also welcoming the CBN governor back to the country.
Emefiele had the opportunity of two meetings with Buhari on Thursday.
The second meeting was between the President and a delegation of the Arab Bank for Economic Development who visited him in the Villa.
Emefiele had first had an exclusive audience with Buhari earlier.
Emefiele appeared in a navy blue suit with a white shirt and his usual green tie, carrying a white file which he held close to his chest.
Emefiele, who got to the Presidential Villa about 2.30 pm, had a closed door meeting for about 25 minutes with the President.
When approached by anxious State House Correspondents, Emefiele declined comments.
Recall that after spending his annual holiday overseas, Emefiele had returned to the country on January 12, 2023.
He had been the target of several attempts by security operatives to arrest him because of allegations of corruption and complicity in terrorism financing.
The Federal High Court in Abuja had rejected the Department of State Service’s (DSS) request for a court order to arrest him weeks earlier.
The DSS asked the court to order the arrest of the CBN governor for alleged “acts of financing terrorism, fraudulent activities and economic crimes of national security dimension.”
On October 20, 2022, Justice Inyang Ekwo sitting in the Federal High Court in Abuja had summoned Emefiele over the $53 million judgment debt arising from the Paris Club refund.
The court ordered him to appear on Wednesday, January 18, 2023, as the hearing date.
Emefiele, however, appealed the FHC decision, claiming that Justice Ekwo’s order requiring his appearance in court for the $53 million debt was illegal and caused a miscarriage of justice.
The court had to adjourned the case until March 20, 2023 because the scheduled sessions on Wednesday could not go as expected.
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