The Port Harcourt Chief Magistrate who sent two pilots and 10 Carveton Helicopters passengers to prison on remand has granted them bail. The pilots and passengers were accused of the Rivers State Executive Order on movement of people in and out of the state in the lockdown over coronavirus.
The two pilots, Samuel Ugorji and Samuel Buhari, were granted bail Tuesday April 14, 2020. The magistrate court also granted bail to 10 passengers of Carveton Helicopters who were flown into Rivers State by the two pilots.
The chief magistrate, D.D . Ihua-Maduenyi granted the two pilots bail after hearing the bail application by their counsel, Nwokedi Ibe. The court demanded that the surety must be a management staff of Carveton Helicopters.
The court ruled that the surety must own a landed property in Port Harcourt and must ensure that the two pilots attended trial. He added that the surety will sign a bail bond of N1million each for the two pilots.
Earlier, the court granted a motion abridging the time for the bail application to be filed following a motion moved by Carveton Helicopters. It deemed the bail application as properly filed, and adjourned the matter to May 19, 2020 for trial.
Lawyer to the Carveton Pilots moved a bail application seeking the court to grant the two pilots bail.
His bail application dated April 8, 2020, but filed on April 9, 2020 was supported by a 28-paragraph affidavit.
The Attorney-General of Rivers State, Zaccheus Adangor, professor, who appeared for the State did not oppose the bail application. He, however, urged the Court to set out bail conditions to ensure that the pilots attended trial.
For the passengers, the Court ruled that they should present two sureties who must be management staff of Carveton Helicopters. The sureties are to sign bail bond of N500,000 for each of the passengers. They are to undertake to bring the accused persons for trial.
They passengers were arrested at the Air Force Base, Port Harcourt after the Rivers State Police Command received intelligence on their flight into the State.
Addressing journalists, Ibe said that the basic lesson in the whole interaction is that there must be mutual respect between the Federal and State Governments.
He said: “I want to use this medium to say there is need for mutual respect between the Federal Government and State Governments.”
The Attorney-General said that it must be noted that Rivers State Government was not interested in the persecution of the defendants, hence it did not oppose the bail application. He said that the State Government was only interested in prosecuting the defendants in line with the law. He said that the defendants will be released as soon as they perfected their bail.
The court later varied the order, and ordered them to be remanded at the Delta Hotels , Old GRA, Port Harcourt, after the Attorney-General applied for that order.
