Court to Rule On former NIMASA DG’s Bail Application June 6

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Court to Rule On former NIMASA DG’s Bail Application June 6

By Correspondent

Justice Rita Ofili-Ajumogobia of a Federal High Court sitting in Ikoyi, Lagos has set aside June 6, 2016, as the day to deliver ruling on the bail application filed by the convicted and sentenced former Director-General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, NIMASA, Raymond Omatseye. The convict had prayed the court to grant him bail pending the determination of his appeal against his conviction. Justice Ofili-Ajumogobia had on May 20, 2016, sentenced Omatseye to five years’ imprisonment and also sent him out of public service for awarding contracts above threshold while in office. Omatseye is challenging his conviction and subsequent sentence by the court with a prayer that he should be granted bail pending the determination of his appeal before the Court of Appeal sitting in Lagos. According to his appeal, the former NIMASA DG contended that going by the number of years it takes to prosecute appeals, the tendency is that he would have finished serving the prison term by the time the appeal was determined. Omatseye also told the court that he is a father of four children, one of whom is very ill and suffers from “severe medical conditions of epilepsy, atypical hypertrophic cardiomyopathy with mitral regurgitation, artrial fibrillation, enuresis, severe learning difficulties and development delays.” He contended that his wife stays full time in London with the sick child to enable him to get proper medical attention and in his wife’s absence he has been providing parental care to the remaining three children in Nigeria. The former NIMASA boss consequently declared that he would not jump bail if granted one. He added that he was always in court during the trial, even though he was granted bail after his arraignment on self-recognition, having been a lawyer for 28 years. However, in opposing the application, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC contended that the issues raised by Omatseye ought to be determined by the appellate court. The anti-graft agency added that the reasons for the post-bail application “are based on an appeal to pity and extraneous circumstances.” It was the contention of the EFCC that, “In the present application, no exceptional or very special circumstances have been shown to entitle the applicant to bail pending appeal. “The applicant has failed to show any special circumstances or reason to enable this honourable court to exercise its discretion in its favour and admit the applicant to bail. “We, therefore, urged this court to dismiss the application.”

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