AFTER THE BAIL...

When the Yar’Adua administration started in May 2007, the Nigerian and International public were inundated with report of many staggering revelations of how highly placed public officers looted the tax payers money for their own personal use. This achievement indeed created a good image for this administration as most people were quick to conclude that this is a no-nonsense regime and one that wants to uphold the rule of law.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in performing its duties initiated the arrest of these people, charge them to court and also revealed all their atrocities to the public, this in turn earned the commission commendable applause from the public to the extent that critics praise the commission for its performance.

Despite this achievement one issue that has to some extent dented it is the unending state of virtually all the court cases brought against these corrupt leaders by the EFCC to the court. After they are charge to court, their lawyers will apply for a bail which in most cases is granted by the judge with a large sum of money and highly placed individuals standing as sureties. After this, the accused is released on bail and then little or nothing is heard about such cases again.
What usually follows these bails are jubilation by the supporters of the accused. To their friends and colleagues, to be released on bail mean freedom for him or her. The accused keep parading the streets and appearing at public functions as if they have been vindicated and acquitted of all charges level against them, some have even try to contest for elections. The court on its part is not doing much in this regard as they handle these cases at a snail speed which will eventually be forgotten by the public and won’t attract their interest anymore.

During this period when the judiciary is been praised for upholding our young democracy through some of the election cases it has upturn it obvious foot dragging to court cases against corrupt public officers, is absolutely uncalled for and could start breeding public distrust against the judiciary.

One other reason attributed to this phenomenon is the huge amount of money that the accused usually paid to get the bail and the calibre of people require who are always individual of high net worth. Take for example the N100 million require from one of the former governor arrested by EFCC for his bail and the calibre of personalities required before he was released.
This actions look more or less like a business transaction-get arrested, pay some amount of money (which they can always afford) for bail and you are free! This seems to be the scenario that is always played out when the news about their arrest appear on the front page of our newspapers.

The effect of this action is making this cases uninteresting day by day to the public, they seems to be fed up with the way the cases are been handled and are already accusing this government of paying lip service to the upholding of rule of law. In fact to the people all government officials in high places are probable whether the EFCC arrest them or not that is now their belief.
Nigerians would like to know what goes on after the bail; the court should be fast with these cases and judgement delivered on time bail or no bail. We should not forget that judgment delayed is judgment denied.