Presidency Accuses Police of Charging Money for Bail

• Promises to establish forensic laboratory in six geopolitical zones

Adedayo Akinwale in Abuja

The presidency has decried the attitude of police officers who still charge for bail from innocent Nigerians, despite the measures put in place to improve the bail process.

The Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Mr. Bosso Mustapha, disclosed this yesterday at a roundtable to validate the Bureau of Public Service Reforms (BPSR) study on mapping the process of obtaining bail process at the Nigeria police station, with the theme; ‘Improving the Nigeria Police Force Bail is Free Process.’

Mustapha who was represented by the Permanent Secretary in office, Mr. Olusegun Adekunle, said the current administration was making concerted efforts to establish at least one police forensic laboratory in each of six geo-political zones of the country to enhance police investigation capacity; and also establish database in all police formations to track detainees in their custody.

He stressed: “It is important to point out that the concept of bail is largely misunderstood in Nigeria and this is because a lot of Nigerians believe that once an accused person who is being tried or investigated for an offence is released on bail, this is automatically signifies the end of the matter. These set of Nigerians, therefore, feel that bail applications must always be opposed whenever an accused person makes an application for bail.”

Mustapha noted that in order to sanitise and improve the ‘Bail’ process at the Nigeria Police Station, the present administration through the Inspector General of Police relaunched the ‘Bail is Free Campaign’ across the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

He said: “However, despite the measures put in place to improve bail process, we are aware that officers of the Nigeria police personnel still charge for bail from innocent citizens who have done nothing in the first place to warrant an arrest.

“It is illegal and unconstitutional for a suspect to be detained for more than 48 hours by the police without bail or charging the individual to court. More importantly, Police bail is free, unfortunately suspects are made to pay for bail before they are released,

“Police corruption and the serious human violations are driven by these financial crimes are not isolated from broader problems facing Nigerian today. Reforms of the deeply entrenched problems in Nigeria police will not be easy, notably because of the many shed interests in maintaining the status quo.

“Police reforms must be seen in the bigger picture off the endemic corruption in Nigeria, use of violence as a tool of politics manipulation , and the culture of impunity that define the political, economic and social sphere of life today in Nigeria,” he added.

The SGF said that the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) in the states commands are being restructured, reorganised and made more robust to arrest violent criminality that is gradually taking over streets, neighborhoods and communities.

Earlier, the Acting Director General, BPSR, Mr. Dasuki Arabi, said stakeholder were invited from different sectors and from different parts of the economy to the roundtable to look at what the findings are and to make inputs where necessary.

According to him, “At the end of this, we are going to produce a policy briefs that will go to the Federal Executive Council (FEC) through the SGF, and this is in line with the move of BPSR to produce or initiate evidence based report. We have gone out, we have seen and the report is telling us these are where problems are. We hope the suggestion we will be putting forward to FEC would ensure the improvement of bail is free process.”

Arabi noted that some of the findings indicated a need for capacity building of police officers for them to understand what is bail, why it is free and why they must go in tune with the campaign.