[SAHARAREPORTERS] A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja has refused to approve the bail application filed by detained alleged terrorists’ negotiator, Tukur Mamu.The court denied him bail on the ground of lack of merit and the applicant’s failure to provide sufficient materials to move the court to exercise its description in his favour.
Justice Inyang Ekwo who dismissed the bail application in his ruling on Thursday held that Mamu failed to rebut the prosecution’s claim that there was a likelihood of him committing more offences.
Justice Ekwo further noted that although Mamu claimed that the State Security Service (SSS), where he was being kept, could not address his health challenges, the court would have to consider other issues before taking a decision.
According to the judge, where the custodian lacks the medical facility to take care of the medical condition of the defendant but is capable of ensuring that the defendant has access to a medical facility suitable for his medical condition, the court would not grant the bail.
Justice Ekwo added that where the defendant willfully rejects the medical facility given to him by his custodian merely for the fact that such facility is not up to the standard that he expects, then, he has no good medical grounds for application for bail.
He further noted that the defendant must understand that his medical care is at the expense of the state and must be reasonable in his demands, adding that evidence before the court revealed that it was after the defendant declined the DSS medical services that he was taken to Arewa Specialist Hospital and Diagnostic Center, Jabi by the security outfit.
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the judge said that the SSS insisted that the hospital was sufficiently capable of handling the medical condition of Mamu and that it was able and willing to take responsibility for his treatment.
Justice Ekwo also said that the SSS further undertook to ensure that Mamu had access to his daily medication for the management of his pre-existing health condition as well as ensuring access to adequate tests and treatments when necessary, during the trial.
He held that in exercising his discretion on the application for bail on allegations contained in a charge sheet punishable with imprisonment for a term exceeding three years, "the discretion of the court to grant bail will not be exercised in favour of the defendant where any of the conditions in Section 162 of the ACJA 2015 is established."
Justice Ekwo maintained that considering the nature of the offence on the charge sheet and the fact that Mamu did not refute an allegation of breach of terms of bail, he was persuaded by the grounds given by the SSS for the court not to exercise discretion to grant bail as prayed by the defendant, hence, he refused and struck out the application.