Detained Lawyer Gets Bail after Six Months in DSS
Custody
A legal practitioner and social critic, Emperor Gabriel Ogbonna
was on Tuesday admitted to bail by a Federal High Court in Abuja
after spending six months in detention by the Department of State
Service (DSS).
Justice Taiwo Taiwo granted the lawyer bail while ruling in a
motion on notice, argued by a foremost human rights activist, Chief
Mike Ozekhome SAN on his behalf.
Ozekhome had in the motion drawn the attention of Justice Taiwo
to the fact that his client had been held unlawfully by the DSS
since March 24, 2020.
The senior lawyer argued that the offence of the detained critic
was his alleged criticism of certain policies of President
Muhammadu Buhari and his conclusion that citizens may revolt due to
alleged harsh living conditions unless the federal government
provides remedy.
Ozekhome, while pleading that the detained lawyer be admitted to
liberal bail conditions said that the fundamental rights of the
detainee had been brutally breached with the six months
detention.
He urged the court to invoke constitutional provisions which
presume the applicant innocent until proven otherwise, so as to
allow him go on bail.
Responding, the lawyer to the federal government, Mr Isah
Abubakar, opposed the bail on the grounds that the applicant will
escape justice in view of the gravity of his alleged offence.
However, in a bench ruling, Justice Taiwo, agreed with Ozekhome
that the law presumed the applicant innocent until found guilty by
a competent court and that the fundamental rights of the applicant
to freedom of liberty had been breached with his detention for more
than the period prescribed by law.
The judge therefore admitted him to bail in the sum of N2
million with two sureties in like sum.
Among others, the sureties must provide evidence of tax payment
and one of them must have property in the Federal Capital Territory
(FCT) with verifiable documents.
He however ordered that the applicant be remanded in prison
custody pending the time he will perfect his bail.