The Wise Bird has been in a very confused state since court bails have been granted to persons charged with the offence of treason.
The Wise Bird is over 60 year plus old and he has witnessed and seen a lot of Treason Cases in Sierra Leone and none of those charged for the offences of treason were granted bail.
The bird has read and understands how Jaagore.com, an online cite, defines bailable offences.
“The online cites says bailable offences are those offences or crimes that are not very serious in nature.
In such cases bail is a right and the arrested person must be released after depositing the bail with the police. The police have the power to grant bail in these types of cases,” the cite reads.
Meanwhile, the Wise Bird witnessed the Mohamed Sorie Fonah and fourteen (14) others Treason case, G M T Kaikai, Francis M.Minah and others treason case but nobody was granted bail, (and the bird stands to be corrected on this ).
Bra Parrot is not legally minded though; maybe the laws have been amended to give bail to person(s) charged for treasonable offence.
The Wise Bird reads widely but has never come across or seen any amendment to show that the offence of treason is now a bail able offence in the land; the bird still stands to be corrected on this.
As per law in any constitution; a law is subject to amendment, and so, maybe a certain section or clause in the constitution has been amended without the knowledge of the Wise Bird (sorry for the ignorant of the bird, if that has been done).
The reason(s) why, the Wise Bird is raising this issue is because the bird call things by their proper names and it is not necessarily making a mockery of the situation, but it is doing this for the records.
The Wise Bird saw that, the former President Ernest Bai Koroma was charged for the offence of treason, and was arraigned before the court on four counts charges of treason, misprision of treason and other two counts of harboring contrary to the laws of Sierra Leone.
He was granted bail and he has been staying up in Nigeria. But very recently the National Organizing Secretary of the All People’s Congress APC party, Bai Mamud Bangura, who was charged with almost the same offences has just granted bail.
To get public reactions on this, the Wise Bird as usual went out to sound the views of the people on the issue, and all those the bird contacted shared the same views on the subject matter, believing that this is the very first time to have seen this happening in Sierra Leone to grant bail to persons charged for treason.
The question some have been asking is that is treason a bailable offence? What is good for the goose is also good for the gander.
The people are urging the Attorney General and Minister of Justice to come with a statement as to whether there is an amendment to the laws to grant bail to persons charged for the offence of treason or whether it is the discretion of the Judge to grant or not to grant a bail.