The legal body warned that the practice is eroding constitutional protections and turning bail into a privilege available only to wealthy and well-connected Nigerians.
The Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) has decried the growing imposition of what it described as excessive and unrealistic bail conditions by courts and law enforcement agencies on defendants.
The legal body warned that the practice is eroding constitutional protections and turning bail into a privilege available only to wealthy and well-connected Nigerians.
In a statement issued on Thursday, June 4, 2026, titled “Bail Conditions Should Not Undermine the Essence of Bail,” the President of the NBA, Afam Osigwe, accused Nigerian courts and security agencies, including the Nigeria Police Force, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), of increasingly attaching harsh and impractical conditions to bail grants.
According to Osigwe, the frequent insistence on sureties who are senior civil servants on specified grade levels, alongside demands for landed properties worth extraordinary sums, has effectively transformed bail from a constitutional safeguard into a tool for prolonged pre-trial detention.
