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.

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. 

Africa is taking a bold step to join the growing game industry that is rapidly attracting the big names in the tech industry as investors.

Carry1st, an African mobile gaming publisher, has announced a $20 million Series A extension round led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), its first investment into an African-headquartered company. New participants in the round are Avenir and Google as well as other prominent angel investors including Grammy winner and crypto investor Nas, and founders of Chipper Cash, Sky Mavis, and Yield Guild Games. Riot Games, Konvoy Ventures, Raine Ventures, and TTV Capital, who were also part of the Serie A round, participated in the extension round.

Founded in 2018 by Cordel Robbin-Coker, Lucy Hoffman, and Tino Mundangepfupfu, Carry1st is a publisher of social games and interactive content with a focus on frontier markets like Africa.

“We’re excited to partner with this world-class group of investors who, in addition to capital, bring expertise across gaming, fintech, and web3,” said Cordel Robbin-Coker, Carry1st’s CEO and co-founder.

“In 2021 we launched multiple games and digital commerce solutions achieving really strong growth. Together we can accelerate this growth and achieve our goal of becoming the leading consumer internet company in the region.”

Since launching its game publishing platform last May, Carry1st has grown by over 90% month-over-month, Robbin-Coker said. “Our team nearly doubled in 2021 in order to support and build on the growth. This funding from some of the world’s most renowned investors will allow us to take the next step forward.”

“We have an incredible market opportunity; coupled with a clear strategy and the resources to realize this potential. In short, we have a chance, which is very exciting,” he added.

Carry1st partners with mobile games studios and content owners around the world to enable them to “launch their content profitably in the region. We’ve developed a payments platform which allows users to purchase using their preferred method of payment, and a marketplace for digital products”.

Having recently partnered with online payments provider PayPal and Chipper Cash, its users can now also pay for digital services like Tinder subscriptions, mobile data, and gaming currency.

Robbin-Coker believes connecting international content owners with “a large, engaged, aspirational user base” is a way to help solve Africa’s notorious connectivity problems.

“Due to app distribution and digital payment problems in the region, it’s extremely difficult for studios to make money off their games – and for consumers to pay for the content they want,” he said.

“As a result, consumers across Africa are underserved. We work with international publishers to access the world’s fastest-growing market. Our publishing solution, which handles user acquisition, live operations, community management, and monetization for our partners, is the solution to this.”

Andreessen Horowitz general partner David Haber said the firm was “delighted to be making our first investment in an Africa-headquartered company” in the mobile games and fintech platform. “We see immense opportunity for the company to mirror outstanding successes we’ve seen in markets like India, China, and Southeast Asia. We couldn’t be more thrilled to partner with founders Cordel, Lucy, Tino, and the Carry1st team on their mission to build the Garena of Africa.”

Gaming has recorded rapid year-on-year growth to become a $200+ billion industry, attracting the flotsam and jetsam in the tech industry as the number of game players jump globally 3 billion. In 2021 alone, the total number of video game releases was up 64% compared to 2020.

The U.S leads the pack with 51% of players reported spending more than 7 hours per week playing across console, PC and mobile. Though China’s recent regulatory framework targeting its game market has resulted in decline in the number of players, there has been an uptick in other countries. The number of gamers is expected to grow to 4.5 billion by 2030.

Mastercard and Visa are racing to make cryptocurrency integral part of their payment structure, with the companies securing partnership deals to enhance crypto-powered payments.

To this end, Mastercard said Tuesday it inked a deal with Coinbase to enable Mastercard customers to make blockchain-based purchases, increasing the payment firm’s number of partnerships.

As part of the agreement, Coinbase customers will be able to use Mastercard credit and debit cards to make purchases on the crypto exchange’s upcoming NFT marketplace. Coinbase unveiled late last year plans to launch the platform for minting and buying non-fungible tokens, which have exploded in popularity over the past 12 months, CNBC reports.

By teaming up with Mastercard, Coinbase executives said they’re looking to reduce friction in the NFT buying process. Right now, that often requires customers opening up a crypto wallet, buying digital currencies, then spending those on NFTs in an online marketplace. Mastercard, meanwhile, said it’s looking to help expand consumer choice on how to pay for NFTs.

“Getting more people involved safely and securely is perhaps the best way to help the NFT market thrive. As it does, Mastercard sees even greater potential for NFTs’ underlying tech to go beyond art and collectibles into many more areas,” Mastercard’s Raj Dhamodharan said.

Mastercard, one of the world’s largest credit card and payment companies, has been on a crypto partnership spree lately. Mastercard announced in October that it’s teaming up with Bakkt to let banks and merchants in its network offer crypto-related services. It has also partnered up with Gemini, BitPay and Mintable, among others.

Rival Visa has been equally active the crypto space. The company has more than 60 partnerships with companies in the space, including the one with Coinbase.

American Express has also said it’s exploring using its cards and network with stablecoins. But CEO Stephen Squeri recently told Yahoo Finance that consumers should not expect to see an Amex-crypto-linked card “anytime soon.”

Cryptocurrencies like bitcoin were first designed to get around banks and intermediaries. But banks and payment companies have embraced those technologies as cryptocurrencies become mainstream.

Mizuho Securities analyst Dan Dolev said in an email that Tuesday’s announcement as another example of Mastercard’s “out-of-the-box thinking” in its approach to crypto. Over the long-term, though, Dolev said blockchain technologies and decentralized finance “can be a threat to the overall network ecosystem as they are challenging the trusted third party concept.”

Late last year, Amazon UK announced plan to cut ties with Visa over high cost of payment processing fees amidst evolving technology, which Amazon believes should make payments cheaper. Cryptocurrency offers cheaper and faster cross-border payments, and it is becoming immensely adopted around the world, threatening traditional financial firms.

Mastercard and Visa among others, are onboarding crypto services through partnerships to ward off the threat.