George Oji
14 December 2007
(Page 2 of 2)
He observed that all the charges being faced by the accused persons were under the Money Laundering Act 2003 and 2004, and that all of them had only terms of imprisonment, pointing out that none of them carried death penalty.
Besides, Daudu further argued that, "There was no proof of evidence attached to charges so as to enable us assess the strength of the prosecution case," noting that, "The authorities are in favour of bail being granted where there is no proof of evidence attached to a charge."
He cited the case of Adegbite vs Commissioner of Police, (2006, 13 NWLR, part 997, pg 252) to substantiate his application.
The presiding judge again interjected by observing that, "Under the CPC, you must accompany your charges with proof of evidence, but we are now on trial under a different law not CPC."
Ibori's counsel observed that, "In all trials when an accused person is capable of losing his liberty the presumption of innocence as recognised by the Constitution takes precedence," noting that, "It makes no difference whether a trial is by summary or information."
He undertook from the bar that if granted bail, the accused persons would not jump bail and that they would endeavour to meet all the conditions of the bail.
But Jacobs still insisted that application of that nature could not be made orally stating that it could only be allowed by way of affidavit evidence.
He told the court that there were reasonable grounds to believe that the first accused person would jump bail, noting that, "The accused person had been convicted twice in the UK and yet you are asking for bail. I know how EFCC trailed him for days before they finally got him hiding at the Kwara State Liaison Office Abuja.
At this point, Justice Shuaibu cautioned Jacobs against revealing some information at this state in order not to provide newsmen in the court information to go to town with.
Jacobs then put his submission thus, "What we are saying is that he has a criminal record in the past. There is a probability that the accused will not make himself available for trial if granted bail."
He urged the court to refuse the accused bail.
Justice Shuaibu reserved ruling on the issue of bail till Monday, December 17, 2007, while ordering that the accused persons be remanded in EFCC custody.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2007 This Day. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
