A High Court in Port-Harcourt has granted bail to the federal lawmaker, Hon. Farah Dagogo, who represents Degema/Bonny Federal Constituency in National Assembly thus ending his detention at Port-Harcourt Maximum Correctional Centre.
Presiding judge, Honourable Justice C. Nwogu, granted him bail in his ruling on bail application brought by his counsel during last week’s hearing.
Hon. Dagogo was granted bail on Tuesday, June 28 in sum of N20million with one surety in like sum who should be resident of Rivers State.
He was asked to deposit his valid Identity Card with the court and is not to travel outside the country pending the trial.
The judge then adjourned the case to July 28 for continuation of hearing.
Honourable Justice Nwogu had earlier struck out a bail application moved by counsel to the federal lawmaker saying that he would not share judicial authority with the Court of Appeal over the application on the grounds there were two applications before the courts.
He had therefore struck out the bail application before his court saying that to share jurisdiction with Court of Appeal would be judicial rascality.
This prompted the counsel representing Hon. Dagogo to file fresh application before the High Court which at the ruling on Tuesday granted bail to the federal lawmaker.
Before the ruling on June 6 which had struck out the bail application the court heard that a bail application for the defendant was also before the Court of Appeal filed by a counsel supposedly working for the defendant.
The principal state counsel, Chidi Ekeh, during the hearing argued that the multiplicity of bail applications amounted to abuse of court process and had urged the judge to strike out the bail application.
However speaking in an interview, one of the counsel representing Hon. Dagogo, Emmanuel Rukari, had said: “Somebody who is not part of what we are doing may have gone to file a bail application and the parties therein are different not the same parties as in the one in this particular suit,” with his other colleague earlier telling the court that the supposed counsel working for his client was actually allegedly working for the state government.
Hon. Dagogo was arrested at Zonal Secretariat of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) while coming for screening of governorship aspirants of the party.
He faced two counts but had pleaded not guilty to them.
On Tuesday when the judge granted him bail his supporters and family members were obviously happy as they surrounded him in court premises while bail conditions were been perfected.
