Chidoka cautions courts against unrealistic, humiliating bail conditions 

Chief Osita Chidoka, former Minister of Aviation, has raised concerns over what he considered as “unrealistic and prohibitive” demand for a condition for bail.

Chidoka made the observation while speaking on “Bail and the Dignity of the Law: A Call For Judicial Restraint” on Tuesday in Awka.

The former Corps Marshal of the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) said such demands were no longer meant to secure the appearances of the suspects but to punish them for lacking means.

He cited a recent case where a suspect was granted bail but on terms only a few honest Nigerians could ever meet.

“The sureties must be serving federal civil servants of Grade Level 16 or above, each must own Abuja property worth N500 million. One must furnish a bank guarantee of N15 billion.

“An officer who enters service at Grade Level 08 and climbs over some 28 years to Grade Level 16 may earn, across an entire career, between N80 million and N100 million.

“Out of that come housing, the education of children, healthcare, transport, and other living expenses.

“By the court’s ruling, an officer must show assets worth five times his lifetime earnings and to stand behind a liability of N15 billion, roughly 150 times everything an honest career could ever yield,” he said.

Chidoka said it was practically impossible for an honest and lawful public servant to produce the wealth the court expected from a respectable citizen.

He said the implication was that only civil servants who were worthy to be trusted were those who had somehow acquired what their salary could never explain.

He said the passport condition also compounded the situation because senior officers often travel on national interest and stripping them of their passports interfered with the very duties the state employed them to perform.

He said a court which found no real risk of flight could not in the same breath impose conditions fit for a fugitive of vast and unexplained means.

He said the law could not have intended the weaponisation of wealth over character adding that conditions that could not be met were not conditions but denial of bail.

“It is keeping the presumed innocent in detention not because the law demanded it, but because their freedom was priced out of reach.

“The focus remains on bail application and not the innocence or otherwise of accused persons.

“Let the courts secure attendance at trial, that is their duty, and let them stop there.

“The purpose of bail is to guarantee appearance and not to measure a man’s wealth, punish him before his guilt is proved, or to make honest public service a thing to be ashamed of.

“It is discriminatory and humiliating for those who do not live in the court sanctioned prime neighbourhood and cast a cloud of corruption on public servants,” he said. (NAN)