Court grants bail to 2 accused persons after 3-yrs in prison

An Oyo State High Court sitting in Ibadan on Wednesday granted bail to one

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the defendants had been in prison custody since November 24, 2012 .

NAN also reports that the hearing of the case had since begun but the bail application of the defendants had not been heard by the judge.

Justice Adegbola Gbolagunte granted bail to the defendants in the sum of N500,000 and two sureties in like sum, with one of them a blood relation of the defendants.

Gbolagunte, who said that the second surety must be a civil servant on not less than grade level 12, adjourned the case till Oct. 31 for further hearing.

Earlier, the counsel to the defendants, Mr Gbenga Falade, had informed the court at Wednesday’s hearing of the case that the prosecutor, Mr Adeyemi Opakunle, had been using delay tactics by not providing the remaining witnesses.

Falade urged the court to consider the bail application of the defendants, saying he had served his bail application on the prosecutor and had not been responded to.

He informed the court that the bail application had been filed on behalf of the defendants since June 22, 2015 and April 28, 2016.

Falade said that the defendants had been in prison custody since Nov. 24, 2012 and had not been granted bail.

It would be recalled that Opakunle, a Principal State Counsel, had informed the court that the defendants were facing a two-count charge of conspiracy and armed robbery.

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Opakunle alleged that the defendants robbed one Yetunde Odunuga and Tope Esther of their cell phones valued at N12,000 and N15,000 respectively.

The prosecutor said that a cash sum of N4,000 was also collected from the victims by the suspects said to be armed with dangerous weapons such as gun and cutlass.

He said that the incident happened on Feb.25, 2011 at about 11.30 p.m. at Ososami area of Ibadan.

Opakunle said that the offences contravened Section 6(b) of the Robbery and Firearms (Special provision Act) Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004.

The defendants had pleaded not guilty.