LAGOS, Nigeria — The residences of Mr Godwin Emefiele, the suspended Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, in Lagos and Abuja have been subjected to searches by the Directorate of State Services, DSS,, according to a family source.
Emefiele’s Abuja residence was searched on Sunday, a day after his arrest, while the Lagos house was searched from Thursday evening through Saturday morning, the family member, who asked not to be identified, told THEWILL on Sunday, June 18, 2023.
According to the source, the DSS officers left the Lagos residence around 2 am on Saturday, June 27, 2023 with Emefiele to return to Abuja, and both the Lagos and Abuja houses continue to have a significant presence of DSS personnel.
“In Lagos, they took away his old phones, including a Blackberry, some files and office folders, as well as his old laptops. Godwin was present when the searches were conducted,” said the family source.
The DSS operatives reportedly left the Lagos residence with a ‘Ghana-Must-Go’ bag containing items they deemed necessary to their investigation.
The source stated, “They only left with one small ‘Ghana-Must-Go’ bag that we gave to them to put the things they wanted to take away. They did not see nor take away money as there was no significant sum in his room or house.”
However, in Emefiele’s Abuja residence, DSS operatives took away several of his wristwatches and N250,000 in cash found in his bedroom, the source revealed.
Since his arrest, Emefiele has been granted access to his lawyers and his wife, Margaret, after an unsuccessful initial attempt.
On Friday, Justice Hamza Muazu of the FCT High Court ordered the DSS to provide him unrestricted access to his family and lawyers, citing it as a fundamental constitutional right of the detainee.
In addition to his residences, the DSS also searched Emefiele’s office at the CBN headquarters in Abuja, according to sources familiar with the matter.
The DSS has not yet detailed the exact reasons for Emefiele’s arrest and subsequent searches, only stating that it is investigating his conduct during his tenure as Governor of the CBN.
