Baba Ijesha Must Show Exceptional Circumstances To Get Bail – Justice Oluwatoyin Taiwo

Justice Oluwatoyin Taiwo of Ikeja Special Offences Court has refused to grant a bail application filed by convicted Nollywood actor, Baba Ijesha.

The actor had sought bail for an appeal to the five-year conviction for sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl, but it has now been denied.

According to the judge, the applicant must show special and exceptional circumstances to get bail because he is facing a serious crime and the term given to him is five years, which is to run concurrently.

It read, “The applicant must show special and exceptional circumstances because the term given to him is five years which is to run concurrently.”

“There is no evidence that the appeal has been entered and there is no indication before this court that the court will not treat the case expeditiously.”

“It is in the view of this court that the applicant has failed to show special circumstances to warrant him bail because he is facing a serious crime.”

“In view of this case, I am inclined to refuse the bail application of the applicants pending appeal.”

WOW.

Nollywood is a sobriquet that originally referred to the Nigerian film industry. The origin of the term dates back to the early 2000s, traced to an article in The New York Times. Due to the history of evolving meanings and contexts, there is no clear or agreed-upon definition for the term, which has made it a subject to several controversies.

The origin of the term “Nollywood” remains unclear; Jonathan Haynes traced the earliest usage of the word to a 2002 article by Matt Steinglass in the New York Times, where it was used to describe Nigerian cinema.

Charles Igwe noted that Norimitsu Onishi also used the name in a September 2002 article he wrote for the New York Times. The term continues to be used in the media to refer to the Nigerian film industry, with its definition later assumed to be a portmanteau of the words “Nigeria” and “Hollywood”, the American major film hub.

Film-making in Nigeria is divided largely along regional, and marginally ethnic and religious lines. Thus, there are distinct film industries – each seeking to portray the concern of the particular section and ethnicity it represents. However, there is the English-language film industry which is a melting pot for filmmaking and filmmakers from most of the regional industries.