Olabode George, the convicted former chairman of the Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA) board, and five others will have to remain in prison for a while longer. Their applications for bail were refused yesterday.
Justice Olubunmi Oyewole of the Lagos High Court in Ikeja, refused the bail applications, which were submitted on health grounds. He noted that the applicants could be granted bail on health grounds, however, they failed to provide concrete evidence to justify that they deserve to be admitted to bail.
"Health will on its own constitute a compelling ground but evidence based on medical grounds must be from an expert in that medical field," the judge said.
Issues/Argument of counsel
Olatunji Ayanlaja, Dele Adesina, Gbenga Ojo, Rotimi Sanni, Olutoyin Uko and Yinka Farohunbi, all counsel to the applicants, had filed an application before the court urging it to admit the convicts/applicants to bail, pending the determination of their appeal.
They urged the court to grant the applicants bail, owning to the fact that their notices of appeal containing the grounds for the appeal, have the likelihood of succeeding at the Court of Appeal. They also based their applications on what they said was the congestion of cases at the Court of Appeal; stating that the convicts would have served their 18-months term, according to the prison calendar before the appeal is determined.
Health grounds
They further based their arguments on the health conditions of the applicants; they stated that the facilities at the Kirikiri Maximum Prison cannot cater for the health needs of the applicants.
While Mr. George, a leading member of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, was said to have hypertension and arthritis, the second applicant, Aminu Dabo was said to have a series of life threatening diseases, ranging from "compensated heart failure to complicated/chronic hypertension and renal impairment" which his counsel, Mr. Adesina, said needs weekly medical attention.
Prosecution's objection
The prosecution counsel, Festus Keyamo, in his counter affidavit and written submissions, urged the court to refuse bail. He noted that with the diligence of the counsel to the applicants, the appeal can be disposed off within a short period of time.
Mr. Keyamo also stated that the medical reports attached by the applicants were from private doctors and not from any government-owned hospital or from the prison hospital. He noted that the doctors are not known specialists in those fields of medicine for which reason he urged the court to refuse the applications.
The ruling
In the ruling, which was delivered about 45-minutes after the argument of the counsel, Justice Oyewole submitted that the issue of congestion at the appeal court was not within his jurisdiction to comment on. "I will not comment on the likelihood of the duration of the appeal," he said.
He also noted that the absence or presence of the counter affidavits of the applicants are only to aid the court to exercise its discretion to grant bail for which reason he submitted that the grant or refusal of bail is at the discretion of the court.
Based on all the issues placed before the court, the applicants were refused bail by the presiding judge and no further adjournment was announced.
"Application failed and consequently refused," the judge said.
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