A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja has varied the bail conditions granted a 21-year-old woman, Glory Okolie, who was arrested and enslaved by operatives of the Inspector-General of Police’s Intelligence Response Team (IRT) in Imo State.
The police had arrested Okolie in June 2021 for allegedly being friends with a suspected member of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).
She was later transferred to Abuja, despite efforts by her family members to secure her release.
Okolie was accused of offences bordering on terrorism and was arrested by the Nigeria Police Force for allegedly being friends with a suspected member of the IPOB.
She has spent 170 days in illegal detention.
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Justice Taiwo Taiwo while ruling on the application for bail variation filed by her lawyer, Ihensekhien Samuel ordered Glory to produce a surety of level 12 civil servant who must depose to an affidavit of means with his/her official paper documentation submitted for verification.
He also ordered that Glory Okolie and her co-defendant upon fulfillment of their bail conditions be released from prison custody and that their production warrant be signed by the vacation judge.
Samuel, in his argument on the application submitted, had stated that in the view of the stringent conditions granted by the court, Okolie be given new bail conditions that were realisable and in line with the earlier bail conditions granted by Justice C.O Origi of the Federal Capital Territory High Court in a fundamental rights’ procedure suit earlier filed on her behalf and still pending before the court.
It was upon this argument and premise that the trial judge admitted her to fresh bail conditions.
Recall that the judge had in a ruling on November 23, 2021, admitted her to a bail of N10million in like sum wìth two sureties, one of whom must be at least a level 14 civil servant while the other must own landed property and must have lived at the present address for at least two years.
