A Chief Magistrate Court sitting in Port Harcourt, Rivers State has granted bail to two pilots of Caverton Helicopters, Samuel Ugorji and Samuel Buhari accused of contravening the Executive Order of the Rivers Governor to check the spread of coronavirus in the State.
The Magistrate Court also granted bail to 10 passengers flown into Rivers State by the two pilots.
Chief Magistrate D.D . Ihua-Maduenyi granted the two pilots bail after hearing the bail application by the counsel to the Caverton Pilots.
The counsel, Nwokedi Ibe moved a bail application seeking the court to grant the two pilots bail.
His bail application dated April 8, 2020 but filed on April 9, 2020 was supported by a 28-paragraph affidavit.
Attorney-General of Rivers State, Professor Zaccheus Adangor who appeared for the State did not oppose the bail application.
He however urged the Court to set out bail conditions to ensure that the pilots attend their trials.
For the passengers, the Court ruled that they should present two sureties who must be management staff of Caverton Helicopters.
They sureties are to sign bail bond of N500, 000 for each of the passengers. They are to undertake to bring the accused persons trial.
It would be recalled that the pilots and the passengers were arrested at the Air Force Base Airport, Port Harcourt after the State Police Command received intelligence on their flight.
The arrests have generated controversies both in the aviation industry and government circles, where the action of Wike has been condemned as one capable of sabotaging the national economy.
