'Bail By Fire' By Adesina Ogunlana

THE LEARNED SQUIB

The Lord Jesus Christ, was amongst other things, a teacher. In fact, he is the Great Teacher. One of his numerous sayings or declarations goes thus-:
“ For the kingdom of God
suffereth violence
and the violent
taketh it by force."

Since many humanoids are fed or misfed with popular theology, which invariably is wrong theology, up till now many cannot understand the Lord's teaching. One big problem is that it is difficult for most people to see any compatibility or correlation between God, his Kingdom and violence.

However last week, precisely Wednesday the 5th of March 2008, a practical demonstration, exposition nay distillation of the Lord Christ’s teaching was forcefully, albeit sensationally made. The venue of the demonstration was the courtroom of Honourable Justice Shitta-Bey of the Lagos High Court.

Available information had it that, one Femi Omolewa and two others facing an armed robbery charge before the Shitta-Bey court have been in custody since 2001.
The prosecution of the matter was as usual in Lagos, slow and even tardy. It would appear that unlike some hardier citizens of Nigeria having rough romance with the law, Omolewa could not cope very well with the strains of life in long prison custody. Gradually, but surely, the man began to lose his marbles.

His state of health certainly disconcerting, made his counsel to bring up a bail application for him and his two other case mates.
However, it is one thing to prepare and file an application, it is another thing to move same in court. Yet another matter entirely for the application to be successful.

On the 5th of March, 2008, Omolewa’s application was successful. The court granted his wish and also that of his colleagues. They were all released on bail. Interestingly, the bail application was moved twice that same day before the same court and before the same judge - Shitta-Bey J. and the same application was equally granted twice by the court.
Let me explain the riddle here.

You see normally, it is counsel who move applications in court while their clients listen on. But in the instant case, it was Omolewa who moved the application by himself. That was the first application.
How did an ignorant accused person manage to do that?. He did it by the very expedience of taking his fate in his hands. Even before his case was called, Omolewa released an impressive, roof-shaking mooing in the name of a yawn. It was an indication of what was to come. When his case was called, Gentleman Omolewa did not observe the boring routine of entering the dock and standing docile while his fate was decided or determined between judge and counsel. Rather, he took strong, bold steps of faith towards the judge. He tried coming boldly to the Throne of Justice. He did not come gently and meekly and sweetly. Rather, he advanced noisily and violently.

With furious steps he charged towards the Daniel on the bench, hands outstretched, fingers pointing like a set of daggers and from his mouth came a thunder of a terrifying question - “You think you can suck my blood?"

That question was Omolewa’s way of moving his application by himself. And it worked. At the instant when Gentleman Omolewa showed he was ready to wreak havoc, that was the instant his application for bail received the court’s blessing.

By the time his lawyer was moved the application from the bar, it was a mere formality. The real deed had been done. While Omolewa’s counsel moved the application from the bar and by law and due process, Omolewa himself had already moved it from the dock and by fire!

Little wonder it worked like sure magic. It certainly proved the Lord Christ correct. Desperate maladies used desperate cures. But, it is a shame that accused persons could be driven so tightly against the wall that they have to imbibe the principle of “positive violence.”

What if Omolewa had got to the judge before his apprehension? Don’t even think about it.