GENERALLY, Bail refers to the release of a person or persons arrested or imprisoned, upon others becoming sureties by recognizance for his/their appearance at a day and place certainly assigned, and the arrested person/persons also entering into self-recognizance.
Police bail is the process of setting at liberty an arrested person upon his furnishing reliable sureties for the purpose of the release from police custody.
It is a constitutional right under the 1999 constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended), the Police Act, as well as the Administration of Criminal Justice Act 2015 and its equivalents in the Administration of Criminal Justice Laws of the 36 states of the federation.
Indeed, Section 35 (1) of the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria (as amended) guarantees the right to personal liberty of all citizens, while Section 35 (5) of the Constitution provides that any person arrested on the allegation of having committed an offence shall be charged to court within 24 hours where there is a court of competent jurisdiction within a radius of 40 kilometers from the police station and 48 hours or such longer period as a court might consider reasonable forcourts above 40 kilometers from the police station.
Rather than complying with this clear and unambiguous provisions of the constitution and other relevant provisions of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act 2015 and its equivalent laws of the 36 states of the federation, the Nigerian Police Force has more often than not chosen the ignoble path of notoriety to grossly violate the constitution and other relevant laws by either commercializing bail grant or keeping arrested persons in detention beyond the constitutionally permitted period by neglecting, failing refusing to grant bail or bring the arrested persons for trial before a court of competent jurisdiction.
Despite the fact that bail is free as the constitution never prescribed any fees to be paid by an arrested or detained person before being granted bail and the fact that in every police station or division, a bold inscription on the door reads ‘Bail is free’ bail, in practical terms is never free as an arrested or detained person can hardly regain personal liberty from such custody without parting with some amount of money.
We condemn in its entirety, this brazen culture of impunity and the temerity with which bail grant has been reduced to sheer merchandise and instrument for extortion in reckless violation of the constitution and the administration of Criminal Justice Act/laws of our nation.
It is unconstitutional, preposterous, highly reprehensible and totally unacceptable, particularly in a society that lays claim to respect for the rule of law, due process and democratic norms and values.
While we remain firm in deprecating the obnoxious practice by the arresting/detaining agencies for this violation of citizens’ right to personal liberty through commercialization of bail and unlawful detention, it will amount to insincerity of purpose to deny knowledge of the fact that beyond the personnel of the agencies, some citizens to some extent contribute to the perpetration of this monster of extortion and commercialization of police bail.
It is a statement of fact that some citizens either as a result of crass ignorance of their rights or in unmitigated desperation to be released from custody easily approach the Investigating Police officer (I.P.O) with money to secure bail while the police on its own always adopts tactics to ensure that detainees or the relatives are intimidated into coughing out substantial amounts of money to secure bail.
Besides, there are some professional sureties who always negotiate with arrested/detained persons or their relatives on the amount of money to be paid to the police for bail.
Worse still, some legal practitioners get their hands soiled in the mess of paying money for bail of their clients especially when the suspects or their relatives insist that they are prepared to pay to secure personal liberty even against the legal advice of the Lawyer.
This ugly narrative cannot continue indefinitely. Citizens should insist on their fundamental rights to personal liberty, while legal practitioners should resist being dragged by either clients or police into the inglorious practice of commercialization of bail, just as the police should respect the rule of law and due process.
Bail is a constitutional right and must be manifestly seen to be so.
