Justice Okon Abang of Federal High Court, Abuja on Wednesday granted only one prayer out of six sought by Chief Olisa Metuh, Spokesman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), in his application for variation of bail.
Justice Abang held that the scope of ownership of property for Metuh’s two sureties has now been expanded to include all parts of the Federal Capital Territory. Consequently, the sureties must have landed property anywhere within Abuja and not just at Maitama.
But the judge insisted that Metuh must perfect the conditions of bail before he would be released from prison.
Citing a ruling of the court granting Metuh bail, Abang held: ”The court cannot be expected to sit on appeal over its decision.”
He directed the accused person to go on appeal against the ruling of the court if he was not satisfied with it.
The judge explained that the decision of the court to grant Metuh bail was not to keep him in custody, and therefore, varied the condition requiring the accused person to have two sureties who must have landed property at Maitama, Abuja.
Emeka Etiaba, the Defence Counsel had prayed the court to vary the conditions of Metuh’s bail on six grounds. One of the grounds was that the order requiring the provision of two sureties who must have landed property at Maitama, Abuja, be varied.
But Tahir Sylvanus, counsel to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), said: “The prosecution is fundamentally opposed to the application of the first defendant for variation of bail.”
In response, the defence counsel argued that the prosecution has no right to oppose the application since it did not file a counter-affidavit and asked the court to exercise its discretion and vary the conditions of the accused person’s bail.
After ruling that the court would not overturn its own judgment, Justice Abang varied the one condition of bail for Metuh.
-TheCable
