Sowore: Falana writes police, says demanding civil servants as bail surety is illegal

Presidential candidate of the Africa Action Congress (AAC), Omoyele Sowore, has restated his stance of refusing the bail condition offered him by the police to provide a permanent secretary that would stand as his surety.

Also, a human rights lawyer and legal counsel of Sowore, Femi Falana, has written to the DIG in charge of the Force Investigation Department (FID), Dasuki Galadanci that requesting a civil servant as surety is illegal.

Sowore rejected the bail condition requiring him to present a level 17 officer, that is, a permanent secretary as surety after he was ordered to appear before police on Monday following a viral video showing him berating police officers for causing traffic gridlock along Murtala Mohammed International Airport in Lagos.

Although the police later reduced the condition to a level 16 civil servant, Sowore insisted that the bail condition was unacceptable to him.

He said: “UPDATE: The PoliceNG team assigned to my case has informed me that the DIG of FID, Dasuki Galandachi, has reevaluated my bail conditions, necessitating the production of a level 16 civil servant and the surrender of my international passport, a condition I have declined outright.

“I refuse to participate in any arrangement that undermines my personal integrity.

“Below is also the response of my lawyer, Femi Falana SAN to the ridiculous request of the Nigeria Police.

‘Dear Hon DIG,

‘Thanks for reducing the bail condition of Mr. Omoyele Sowore to a surety of level 16.

‘However, I wish to point out that such bail condition has been declared illegal by the Court of Appeal in the case of Dasuki V. Director-General, S.S.S. [2020]10 NWLR PT.1731 PG. 136-143 where Adah JCA (now JSC) held as follows: “Let me quickly say that of concern it is to us that as a court we must be ready and sensitive enough not to allow or do anything that will run foul of the law. The issue of involving civil servants or Public Officers in the Public Service of the Federation and the State in bail of people accused of criminal offences has never been the practice in Nigeria or any part of the civilized world. It was an oversight on our part to allow it in. Our Civil and Public Service Rules do not have any room for it. Expecting a Level 16 Servant to own property worth N100,000,000, will be running counter to the Public Service Rules and by extension the war against corruption. It is in this respect that I will act ex debito justitiae to ensure that the aspect of involving serving Public Servant below the status of Level 16 Officer in either the state or Public Service of the Federation or any of its agencies be removed and I so order.”