Controversy has trailed the decision of the Federal High Court sitting in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, to grant bail to Obong Bassey Albert Akpan, governorship candidate of the Young Progressives Party (YPP), and serving Senator for Uyo Senatorial District, who was sentenced to seven years imprisonment for corrupt practices.

Recall that Sen. Albert was on Thursday, December 1, 2022 sentenced to jail  by the Federal High Court in Uyo, following a successful prosecution by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

Sen Albert, was prosecuted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission which accused him of receiving a bribe of 12 cars worth N254 million from an oil marketer, Olajide Omokore, while serving as commissioner for finance in Akwa Ibom State between 2010 and 2014. The EFCC on June 24, 2019 arraigned Sen.

The EFCC which was investigating money used for the 2015 elections, spotlighted one Jide Omokore, who was suspected as a conduit through which illegal funds were used for elections.

While interrogating the businessman, he had mentioned his numerous transactions with Obong Bassey Albert, who by this time had become a Senator.

The EFCC on June 24, 2019 arraigned Sen. Albert at the Federal High Court, Uyo and the case has been ongoing since then despite several chronic delays by Sen. Albert’s team.

While the case was ongoing at Ikeja, Sen. Albert, through his lawyers, filed a preliminary objection to the jurisdiction of the court.

 They prayed the court as follows, “There is nothing in the proof of evidence that suggested that any aspect of the alleged crime against the first defendant was committed outside Akwa-Ibom State and in Lagos State.

The EFCC on June 24, 2019 arraigned Sen. Albert at the Federal High Court, Uyo and the case has been ongoing since then despite several delays by Sen. Albert’s team, until his eventual conviction in December last year.

Although many had thought that the conviction would bring closure to the case and that Sen. Albert  would duly be committed to prison custody pending possible quashing of the conviction by a higher court, it came as a surprise when the Federal High Court in Port Harcourt which he approached after his conviction, granted him bail.

The High Court, presided over by S.I. Mark, in its decision on December 28, granted Senator Albert bail in the sum of N50 million with two sureties in like sum, on account of ill health.

The Senator, it is understood, has since met the bail conditions and has been released, a development that has kept many wondering whether a person convicted by a Federal High Court can be granted bail by another High Court.

The question many have raised, among others, is what could have warranted the grant of bail pending an appeal?

A question has also arisen with respect to how a High Court in Rivers could grant bail to a person convicted by another High Court in Uyo.

Senator Albert reacts

Reacting Mr. Anny Michaels,  Special Assistant on Media to YPP gubernatorial candidate, Senator Bassey Akpan confirmed that it was the Federal High Court, in Rivers that granted the bail.

His words: “ordinarily the same Federal High Court that passed the judgement should have been approached to grant the bail application. So it is only where the FHC refuses that the Court of Appeal could be approached. And the because the Courts were on vacation at the time the Federal High Court in Port Harcourt was approached.

“There is nothing wrong about that. I am confirming that it was the FHC in Port Harcourt that granted the bail. If a judgement come from a Federal High Court, that court is supposed to be approach in case you want a bail application. Courts were on vacation and given the urgency of the bail because of his health condition, the Federal High Court was approached in Port-Harcourt, that Court did not go on vacation throughout the festive period. If the Federal High Court had refused, the is when the Appeal Court would have been approached, so in this case there was no need for it”

 Meanwhile, the spokesperson of the YPP campaign, Chief Usoro Usoro did not take calls made to his phone at press time.

However,  E. S. Oriere, a lawyer and rights activist, has written to Prof Mahmood Yakubu, chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), requesting that Senator Albert be disqualified from participating in the Akwa Ibom State governorship election.

According to the Abuja based lawyer in the letter to INEC chairman dated December 22, “this request is predicated on the conviction of Mr. Akpan by the Federal High Court sitting in Uyo on December 1, 2022 for money laundering offence in FRN V. ALBERT BASSEY (CHARGE NO. FHC/UY/59C/2019).”

He noted that The request is made pursuant to paragraphs (d) and (e) of section 182 (1) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (As Amended), which disqualifies a person under a sentence of imprisonment or a person convicted and sentenced for an offence involving dishonesty or fraud from contesting election to the Office of Governor of a State.