Judiciary
A lawyer, Mr Douglas Ogbankwa, has urged that law enforcers should not demand that sureties to crime suspects are known to their legal counsel.
Grant of bail is provided for by law, and the law does not even give law enforcement agencies the powers to impose conditions,” he said.
Ogbankwa, a former Publicity Secretary of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), made the call in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos on Friday.
He said that it was unlawful for the police and other enforcement agencies to demand that legal counsel should sign on bail bonds that sureties to their clients (crime suspects) were known to the counsel.
According to Ogbankwa, such a requirement is contrary to some provisions of the law, which regard bail as a constitutional right available to a suspect or defendant.
He said that insisting on such a requirement before bail could be perfected was wrong.
“I have come across cases where law enforcement officers arrest people because they signed a purported commitment called ‘surety known to me’.
“This is not a crime encapsulated in any written law anywhere in Nigeria.
“One of the components of the rule of law is legality, and that is to say that enforcement of the law must be contingent on the existence of a crime known to law,” he said.
Ogbankwa called on law enforcement agencies to abide by constitutional provisions.
Ogbankwa noted that the Administration of Criminal Justice Act of 2015 provided that a crime suspect should be entitled to bail in bailable offences.
“Bail iis a constitutional right provided for in Section 36 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended),” he said.
Ogbankwa added that Section 36 (8) of the Constitution provided that no person should be held to be guilty of a criminal offence on account of any act or omission that did not, at the time it took place, constitute such an offence. (NAN)
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Tags: Douglas Ogbankwa Nigerian Bar Association
