By Adedoyin Falolu
Over unlawful assembly, incitement, disturbance and criminal conspiracy allegation leveled against Omoyele Sowore, founder Sahara Reporters and others for heating up the polity on January 1, a magistrate court in Abuja has granted them bail.
Mabel Segun Bello, the magistrate sitting over the case imposed a 20 Million naira bond on Omoyele Sowore and demanded he produced two sureties.
The Magistrate in her ruling said the court granted Sowore and his co-accused bail because they did not fall short of the conditions of their detention while adding that the bail was given to fulfill their fundamental rights to liberty.
She further noted that the defendant needed to be kept under close watch to ensure that public peace is maintained.
While filing bail application, Marshal Abubakar, the lead defense lawyer prayed the court to grant the application based on the most liberal terms having suffered a delay on Friday because neither the defendant or counsel were present in court.
According to Abubakar, the defendant was initially refused bail because the police could not provide them in court. The defense lawyer said the Police claimed to have handed the case file to a Deputy Inspector General of Police,(DIG) for further prosecution saying that the DIG who was charged with the responsibility of producing the defendants claimed to have given the case file to another Director of Public Prosecution on the instruction of the Attorney General of the Federation.