Emmanuel Ukudolo
Nigeria, June 6, 2016 – Former Director General of Nigerian Maritime and Safety Agency(NIMASA), Mr. Raymond Omatseye was today granted bail based on the deteriorating health condition of his son by a Federal High Court sitting in Ikoyi, Lagos.
He was granted bail in the sum of N500,000 and two sureties in like sum, one of them must be a civil servant not below grade level 16. He is also ordered to deposit his international passport with the court.
Justice Rita Ofili-Ajumogobia had on May 20th, 2016 sentenced Omatseye to 5 years jail term over N1.5billion contract scam and consequently committed him to jail at Ikoyi Prison, Lagos.
Dissatisfied with terms of his conviction, the ex-NIMASA DG, Raymond Omatseye appealed the decision before filling this application for bail on the grounds that one of his four children was having serious health problems having to do with development delays, uncontrollable behaviour and unexpected epileptic seizure.
His application for bail from Idowu Shofolahan & Co was supported with 18 paragraph affidavit and two exhibits.
Ruling on the bail, Justice Rita Ofili-Ajumogobia, noted that the defendant whom she had convicted on May 20th, 2016 was dissatisfied with condition of his sentence, and subsequently filed an appeal.
According to her Lordship, the notice of appeal contains content that are substantial and arguable.
“’The applicants is a father of 4 children, one of which is suffering from myopathy, mental regurgitation, neurosis, severe mental condition of epilepsy, severe development delay as a result of medullar health issues, causing the applicant’s child to suffer inability to sleep throughout the night, unexpected epileptic seizure and uncontrollable urination difficulty”, she said, quoting from the affidavit.
According to her, the medical condition has put severe strain on the applicant’s family.
“I have set aside others on grounds which I don’t need to recite here. They are not very pleasant’’, she said, adding that the applicant requested to stay full time with his child in London for proper medical attention not available in Nigeria.
In granting the bail application, she said that the appeal contains substantial and arguable ground based on condition of the sick child having development delay, epileptic seizure, causing him to suffer uncontrollable and unable to sleep throughout the night.
“I do recall the situation of the defendant’s son and been a mother I known that he needs to be with his wife to be able to help with the child. I will admit the defendant to bail on some simple consideration of being a parent. Parenthood is an important vocation, an important venture that people should not play around with”, she said, and granted the ex-NIMASA DG, Raymond Omatseye bail pending his trial at the appeal court.
