You Can Not Stop Us From Arresting Lamido Sanusi, Nigerian Federal Government Tells Lagos High Court!

The Federal Government had on Friday told a Federal High Court in Lagos that it cannot stop the police and the Department of State Security Service from arresting the suspended Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Mallam Sanusi Lamido.

The former apex bank governor had earlier filed a suit seeking an order restraining the police and officers of the Department of State Security (DSS) from arresting, detaining or otherwise harassing him. He copied the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), Inspector General of Police (IGP), and the Department of State Security (DSS) as first to third respondents respectively.

The AGF, while faulting the suit in an affidavit in support of the preliminary objection deposed by one Ayokunle Odekunle, said the reliefs sought by Sanusi were constitutionally not grantable as the Police and the DSS cannot be restricted from carrying out their constitutional and statutory duties of arresting and prosecuting anyone found to have committed an offence.

Besides, the government recalled that on February 26, 2013, Sanusi sent the audited accounts of the CBN for the year that ended in December 31, 2012, to the President, who later sent it to the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria (FRCN) for examination and advice. The FRCN, government added, subsequently released a damning report of financial impropriety on the operations of the CBN under Sanusi.

The government said his tenure at the apex bank was characterised by acts of financial recklessness and misconduct. His actions, according to the Federal Government, were inconsistent with the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan’s vision of a CBN that is propelled by the core values of focused economic management, prudence, transparency and financial discipline.

Meanwhile, Justice Ibrahim Buba of the Federal High Court has fixed March 31, 2014 for hearing of the suit.