The Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) has urged courts, the Nigeria Police Force, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and other security agencies across the country to stop imposing civil servants with assets on suspects as sureties to fulfill bail conditions in both criminal and civil cases.

In a statement issued on Thursday, the body described the frequent acts by authorities requiring defendants to produce civil servants of specified senior work grades and with high-end landed properties before securing bails as excessive and a tool of pre-trial detention. 

“In recent times, we have observed with growing concern a disturbing trend in the administration of criminal justice in Nigeria, where courts and law enforcement agencies, including the Nigeria Police Force, EFCC, ICPC, and other security agencies, increasingly impose bail conditions that are excessive, impractical, and difficult to satisfy,” the NBA said.

The legal body added, “The frequent insistence on sureties who are senior civil servants of specified grade levels, coupled with demands for landed properties of extraordinary value, has in many cases transformed bail from a mechanism for securing attendance at trial into a tool of pretrial detention.”

Speaking further, the NBA maintained that the practice has resulted in suspects, who are ordinary presumed innocent until proven guilty under the law, spending long periods behind bars despite being granted so-called bail because they are unable to meet the stringent conditions set by judicial and enforcement authorities. 

“It is neither a punishment nor a mechanism for imposing pre-trial incarceration by indirect means. The law is settled that bail conditions must be reasonable, practical, and capable of being fulfilled by the accused person,” the NBA noted. 

Additionally, the body highlighted that appellate courts in Nigeria have consistently faulted the practice of involving serving public officers as a mandatory category of sureties.

It cited the case of Dasuki v. Director-General, State Security Service & Ors (2019) LPELR-49182 (CA) in which the court agreed that it was unrealistic for a public servant on Grade Level 16 to own property worth N100 million.

Subsequently, the NBA called on courts at all levels to be guided by the constitution and administrative rules when ruling on bail applications, stressing “Bail conditions must be fair, reasonable, proportionate, and attainable. Courts must guard against imposing terms that render the grant of bail illusory or nugatory.”