Due to the feedbacks that the last piece: “Mopha in prison for failure to perfect bail; what you should know about bail & it’s conditions” which summarily talked about the concept of “Bail” generated, readers reached out to confirm the veracity of the most used phrase in police stations; “bail is free”. The question posed is; “is bail really free”?.
For the sake of leaving no stone unturned, we’d redefine the term “bail” here:
Bail is the temporary release of an accused person who is awaiting trial while he guarantees that he will be appearing in court or reporting to the police whenever his presence is needed and he also guarantees that he won’t won’t run away or go into hiding. In the case of Onyebuchi v FRN & ORS (2007) LPELR- 4135 (CA) Bail was defined as the process by which an accused person is temporarily released from the state custody to sureties on conditions given to ensure his attendance in Court whenever he is required until the determination of the case against him.
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By the virtue of s.35(4) of the constitution, any person who is arrested by the law enforcement agency for commission of crime must be brought before court within a reasonable time. Reasonable time in this regard is “24-48 hours”. Therefore, it is illegal, unlawful, unconstitutional and breach of fundamental human right for a suspect who has been accused of a crime to be detained in police custody for more than 48hours, hence the reason why there’s room for police bail, which simply means; temporary freedom pending when the police would have made enough case against the suspect in order to charge him to court.
Readers should note that there are two major types of bail and they are; Police Bail (administrative bail) and Court Bail but we are going to pay more attention to police bail in this piece because of our theme, the notorious phrase; “bail is free” which has been a mantra to the police agency and other law enforcement agencies.
Police Bail which is also known as administrative Bail is the bail granted by the police to a suspect who is in their custody. It is a temporary freedom the investigating police officer(s) grants a person suspected of committing a crime pending when they obtain enough evidence to charge such a person to court.
Police bail is statutorily provided for in s.62 (2) of the police act which is in line with the proviso of s.35(4) of the constitution and in no statute or any written law in force in Nigeria was it provided that a suspect should pay a fee for his bail.
This phrase “bail is free” with it’s syndicate phrase “police is your friend” are the most unbelievable sentences in the history of the Nigeria police system.
Fortunately, as paradoxical as it may sound; the phrase “bail is free” is right, accurate and true as bail is actually very free in Nigeria as of today.
We are not ignorant of the fact that It is a well-known secret that individuals are made to pay scrupulous amount in police stations before they can bail themselves or bail their ward that is in police custody, which is the root of doubt of the accuracy of the “bail is free” slogan, even when it has been incessantly emphasized on by the police agencies themselves. This is no doubt the handiwork of the “black-sheep” police officers bringing the name of the police commission to disrepute.
The take home; Un/fortunate as it may seem, bail is free and don’t hesitate to report a police officer who is asking you for a fee for your bail or your ward’s bail.