Bail: The Right Of The Accused

The terms or conditions of bail are not expected to
be impossible or onerous to meet.
A person can be granted bail on self recognizance, in which case he/she is not required to enter a bond or provide sureties, but only on the condition that he ‘ll ordinarily appear in court or police station on a specified date to answer to the alligation made against him.
However in practice bail is rarely granted on this term. Except the alleged offender is a reputable and responsible member of the society and alleged offence is a minor one.
Bail on a bond for a fixed amount is another condition of bail. A bond is a written undertaken executed by the accused person that he will appear when needed but with a fixed amount of money. When he fails to appear, he’s liable to pay the amount of money stated in the bond.
There is also a condition where bail on bond requires a surety or sureties as the case maybe. This is a three-part accused and a surety. The state releases the accused person on bail on the guarantee given by the surety that the accused person will attend his trail. In some case money is deposited instead of a bond.
Bail they say is free, but real is this when suspects and their relations are made to pay huge amount of money before the said suspect is admitted to bail. This assertion was confirmed by the recent survey done by punch newspaper where it was revealed that police stations are run from extortion of suspects and donations from generous members of the public.
Upon arraignment at magistrate courts and area court accused persons are made to pay for bail with the connivance of defence counsel. In Mathas Onuigbo V. Commissioner of Police (1995) NWLR (PT 34) the court of appeal declared illegal the demand for deposite of N600 cash attached to the Appellant’s bail. In Oluwole Makinde V. state (unreported) suit No. SC/1988 the supreme court equally set aside the condition of 1 million deposit in the Central Bank Kano Branch or a bank guarantee of N1 million imposed by the court of Appeal for the securing the bail of the Appellant.
In view of the settled position of the law on cash deposit for bail, all those laws inconsistent with sections 35(4) and 36 (5) of the constitution ought to be expunged from the law by virture of 51(3) of the constitution. That is why I agree with Justice Abdu Aboki when he said this:
“It is improper to impose unnecessary and unfulfillable conditions of bail outside the provision of the land on an accused person to the point of almost rendering the bail nugatory. Bail application should not be refused indirectly in case of bailable offences or where bail is automatic in case of simple offences or offence punishable with less than three years imprisonment by imposing conditions such as letters of recommendation from sureties place of work or tax certificate, three months pay slips from sureties place or work Grants or original certificates of Grant or original certificate of occupancy by sureties in court and other harsh requirements. (justice Abdu Aboki, JCA, fair Hearing and Bail in NJI Law Journal, 2009 P.55
In my opinion, since the essence of bail is to secure the attendance of an accused persons at their trail, family members should be allowed to stand as sureties for them and not tie bail to ownership of property and money that is not within the reach of an average Nigeria.

Nkechi Bright Ewere