The Federal High Court
sitting in Abuja has granted bail to the founder of the DAAR Communications
Plc, Raymond Dokpesi, to the tune of
N400 million.
Presiding Judge, Justice Gabriel Kolawole ordered that
Dokpesi be held at the Kuje prison, Abuja, pending the perfection of his bail
conditions.
In his ruling, Justice
Kolawole said that one of sureties must be a director in the Civil Service
while the defendant must deposit his international passport with the court.
He faulted the argument
of the prosecution, led by Mr. Rotimi Jacobs, SAN, that Dokpesi was facing an
indictable felony charge and should as such be kept behind bars. He said that
an accused person is presumed innocent until proven guilty.
Kolawole
held that it was only in capital offences like murder that the court could deny
granting bail to the accused person, noting that the maximum penalty for the
offence the defendant was alleged to have committed was seven years
imprisonment, which he added was minimal in relation to penalties for capital
offences.
Source: The Sheet
No comments:
Post a Comment