|
Court defers ruling on Bankole’s bail application
Newsdiaryonline Friday June
10,2011
A Federal High Court sitting in
Abuja on Friday, June 10th, 2011, ordered that a
former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mr
Dimeji Bankole, standing trial
on a 16 count charge bordering on contract inflation and
fraudulent embezzlement of public fund , be remanded in the
custody of the Economic and Financial
Crimes Commission, EFCC, while reserving ruling on his
bail application till Monday, June 13th, 2011.
In
another vein, the Presiding Judge, Justice Donatus Okorowa
condemned a correspondence by the lead counsel to the accused
person, Mr Adegboyega Awomolo, SAN, alleging that the EFCC may
not obey court orders, saying that such a correspondence was “
very bad and in bad taste”
Bankole was arraigned before the court on Wednesday, June 8th,
2011 over an alleged N9billion scam. At the resumed
sitting of the court on his bail application on Friday,
prosecution counsel, Festus Keyamo complained to the court that
paragraphs 9 and 10 in the contentious correspondence addressed
to him by the defence counsel were damaging and capable of
casting aspersions on the integrity of the EFCC. He demanded
that the paragraphs be withdrawn. Justice Okorowa condemned the
correspondence and Awomolo withdrew the paragraphs
accordingly. Keyamo strongly opposed the bail application for
Bankole saying that he may jump bail owing to the fact that he
resisted his arrest.
Keyamo argued that the offences for which Bankole was standing
trial were heinous and this fact alone may not make him
to present himself for trial. “Bankole may not present
himself for trial. The weight of the charges against him may
earn him several years of imprisonment. So, he may jump
bail”, he said. He also submitted that Bankole has enormous
responsibilities to convince the court that he would not jump
bail and to do this, “ he needs to place sufficient materials
before the court. Such claims that he has two children, an aged
parent and many dependants are not legal claims”. Keyamo said
that the James Ibori case which
the defence cited to back up its argument for bail was a bad
case. “Ibori’s case cannot be a good authority for defence to
cite because Ibori eventually ran away. The EFCC feared
that Ibori would run away and he ran, Bankole may toe the same
line”, he said.
In his response, Awomolo told the court that, Bankole would not
jump bail because to do so would be unconstitutional and would
make him to be criminally-liable. He also said that since the
world has now become a global village, “Bankole can be held
anywhere in the world, should he try to jump bail.” He
challenged the EFCC to disclose the source of the information he
got that Bankole planned to run away before his arrest and
requested for more proofs to substantiate the position that
Bankole may jump bail. “The onus is on the prosecution to prove
why bail should not be granted an accused person without relying
on any un-substantiated claims”.
Justice Okorowa, after listening to all the submissions of both
the prosecution and defence counsel, adjourned the case till
Monday, June 13th, 2011 for ruling on bail
application.
|
