The Chief Magistrate’s Court sitting in Port Harcourt, Rivers State capital, has granted bail to two pilots and 10 passengers of Carveton Helicopters.
The pilots and their passengers were accused of contravening the Executive Order issued by Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike to check coronavirus pandemic spread in the state.
Chief Magistrate D.D. Ihua-Maduenyi granted the bail, on Tuesday, following a bail application by their lawyer, Nwokedi Ibe.
But, Ihua-Maduenyi, in granting the bail, said that the accused persons must present a surety, who must be a management employee of Carveton Helicopters.
He said the surety must own a landed property in Port Harcourt and must ensure that the two pilots were present in court to attend their trials.
The magistrate insisted that the surety will sign a bail bond of N1 million for each of the pilots.
For the passengers, the court ordered that they should present two sureties who must be management employees of Carveton Helicopters.
The sureties, the magistrate said should sign a bail bond of N500, 000 for each of the passengers and give undertakings to bring the accused persons for trials.
The pilots’ and passengers’ lawyer said the incident had emphasised the need for mutual respect between the federal and state governments.
Nwokedi said: “I want to use this medium to say there is need for mutual respect between the Federal Government and state governments. The defendants have been granted bail. That is the essence of what happened in court.”
Rivers State Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice Prof. Zaccheus Adangor, said he did not oppose the bail application because the state government was not interested in the persecution of the defendants.
He said that the government was only interested in prosecuting the defendants within the ambits of the law, adding that they would be released after perfecting their bail conditions.

By Mike Odigwe