Publisher of online news platform, Sahara Reporters and Presidential Candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC), Omoyele Sowore had been charged to court for offences bordering on treasonable felony, money laundering and cybercrime. Mr. Sowore is being charged for “knowingly sending messages by means of press interview, which you knew to be false for the purpose of causing insult, enmity, hatred and ill-will on the person of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria”, among others. He was charged alongside Olawole Bakare for treasonable felony, for his involvement in organising the protest. The charges came just before the expiration of the 45-day period of a detention order of the Federal High Court granted to the Department of State Services (DSS) on 8th August 2019, permitting the agency to hold the activist while it concluded investigations on the matter. However, on Tuesday, 24th September 2019, the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja rejected an application by the DSS, requesting for an extension of the detention period and ordered the release of Mr. Sowore, who is yet to be released after fulfilling his bail conditions. On the same day, wife of the activist, Opeyemi Sowore led protesters to the United Nations (UN) Plaza in New York, where President Buhari was attending a the UN Climate Action summit, calling for her husband’s release.
It will be recalled that Omoyele Sowore convened a protest with the theme, #Revolution Now, on 5th August 2019. However, Sowore was arrested by DSS operatives on 2nd August 2019 and has been in detention since then. The protest held as planned in a number of States despite Mr. Sowore’s detention but the protesters were soon dispersed by security agents. A number of human rights groups across Nigeria have condemned Sowore’s detention and called for his release. A protest organised on Wednesday, 18th September 2019 by supporters of the activist in Lagos to demand his release was disrupted by security agents who laid siege to a Sahara Reporters office in Ikeja, Lagos and the office of the Committee for Defence of Human Rights (CDHR) in Lagos, the convergence point of the protesters.
Executive Director of Policy and Legal Advocacy Centre (PLAC), Clement Nwankwo had in a statement described Sowore’s arrest as “an appalling human rights violation”.