ENUGU: Where Magistrates Twart Bails, send defendants to Prison in judicial rascality

By Alex Amujiogu 

The Temple of Justice Foundation, a non governmental organization, in the forefront of enthroning and advancing the course of Justice, has decried the alarming rate of judicial or magisterial rascalities by some Magistrate court in Enugu State while dispensing Justice among parties who had been brought before them for Justice.

The foundation noted in specific terms that this situation is mostly witnessed and exhibited by them on matters of overnight criminal cases where bail is required.

Enquires had revealed that the moment the prosecutor bring on board fresh criminal cases against suspect which need prosecution, " *illegal preliminary trials* " are usually being conducted ex parte on the head of the intending accused person before the actual charge is brought against him for plea to be conducted , during which the magistrate must have been briefed and positioned it's mind on the peculiar nature of the case which requires that it is the intention of the nominal complainant that the accused person who is being arraigned , should be reminded in custody by all means, despite the bailable nature of the complaint / charge.

To the foundation, it is condemnable that bailable charges ranging from threat to life, threatening violence , assaults, conduct likely to cause breach of peace among others , of which an accused person may be standing trial before them , are tactically denied bail through the imposition of hard-notted bail condition while claiming that they have granted bail.

It is disheartening that people who were facing trumped up charges of threatening violence or the likes, as a result of communal factional disagreement either with the Igwe faction of a community or his group, will be ordered by an Enugu Magistrate court , that the condition for his bail must be that they should produce a Surety who must be the Igwe of the community.

The million naira question is, how can a person or a proxy who is championing the cause of a person's criminal charge be projected as the only surety that will take a Defendant on bail .Is this not an implied denial of bail and a travesty of Justice ?

Also, in a master/servant relationship that later metamorphose into criminal case of stealing, a Magistrate will while granting bail, order that the only surety that will take the defendant on bail must be a permanent secretary working in the government of Enugu state.Meanwhile, this is a Defendant who may in his entire local government, does not have any person appointed as a permanent secretary, let alone the one known to him that can comfortably and boldly walk down from his office to the Magisterate court to stand as surety to somebody he does not know.

Additionally, where lies the Justice that a non indigene standing trial on bailable offence will be ordered to produce a surety for his bail who must be a President General of the community.(PG).For goodness sake, what has the PG has to do with a mere personal misunderstanding between two people that led to a charge.

More and more cases abound where some Enugu Magistrates manufacture unknown bail conditions geared towards tactically denying Defendants standing trial before them bail in a bid to execute the I'll and filthy desire of a nominal complainant who in most cases are money bags , after "preliminary experts trial ' must have been conducted before the real or actual taking of plea.

Moreso, some after granting bail to a Defendant, will immediately disappear from the thin air before bail perfection without signing the order for bail , all with a clandestine game of making the Defendant to be remanded in correctional center (Prison), for at least one day, so that the nominal complainant will be Happ happy that he had succeeded in putting him in prison.

Other occasions exist where even after they have granted bail, will for no reasonable just cause , intentionally reject viable surety (ies), brought by a Defendant for his bail , just to ensure that the Defendant smells the forewalls of the correctional Centre.

Indeed, we can not continue like this.

There is need, my Noble Lord, for magisterial evaluations / seminar to be conducted for Magistrates in Enugu State ,on periodic basis, *at least once a year* , to review the specific actions of Magistrates in our beloved State.

Currently, a lot of innocent Magistrates are gradually adopting to this I'll tactics of bail denial on a clear bailable offence as the Igbo adage says- Alu gbaru aro, oburu omenani ( When evil continues to trend for one year, it becomes an acceptable custom) and this should not be allowed .

The time to immediately nip same to the board has come , as we cannot continue like this.

Magistrates should continue to bear in mind that every accused person brought before them for plea are not to be slaughtered or condemned immediately *like point and kill* , at the point of plea but know that Section *36(9)* *of Constitution* *of the Federal republic of Nigeria* still cloth them with *presumption of innocent.* 

 *Right to bail* is therefore a constitutional right and even the current *Administration of criminal Justice system of Enugu State* also empower Magistrates to make inquires on police case files cropping up charges bordering on Capital offences to know if valid facts exist to sustain any plea that will deny an accused bail.

Magistrates hardly utilize all these new innovations introduced in our criminal Justice system as they are *busy remanding innocent Defendants/ accused* *persons in prison* for no reasonable just cause.

In view of the above legal anomalies, we call on the *Chief Judge of Enugu State,The Honourable Attorney General of Enugu* *State, the Enugu State Judicial Service Commission and the leadership of Magistrates Association of Nigeria (MAN), Enugu Chapter* , to urgently convene a *conference of Magistrates* in Enugu State to address these continued judicial rascalities before it reaches a point of no return.

Enugu Justice System should be a pointer for the evolution of functional Justice system in Nigeria where the *poor, oppressed and* *the downtrodden* will breath a sign of relief after *excruciating police office encounter* and not a place where they will further and finally be executed through cultural remand order.

Time to act is now, my Judicial Torch bearers 

Ozo Alex Amujiogu Esq, a Human  Rights lawyer, is the Executive Director, Temple of Justice Foundation, Enugu, Nigeria