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  • Sowore docked, pleaded not guilty to treason charge

    Sowore docked, pleaded not guilty to treason charge

    The Department of State Services, DSS, has docked the convener of the #RevolutionNow Protest, Omoyele Sowore on a seven-count charge of treason, money laundering and cyberstalking President Muhammadu Buhari.

    Sowore was brought to court in Abuja today alongside another defendant, Olawole Bakare, also known as Mandate.

    However, Sowore pleaded not guilty to the seven-count charge the Federal Government preferred against him.

    The activist was arraigned with Olawale Bakare, on Monday, as they pleaded not guilty to the seven counts of treasonable felony and other sundry offences instituted against them by the Federal Government.

    They were arraigned before Justice Ijeoma Ojuwku of the Federal High Court in Abuja.

    Justice Ojukwu had earlier dismissed the objection of the defendants’ lawyer, Adeyinka Olumide-Fusika (SAN), to the scheduled arraignment.

    Olumide-Fusika stated that the arraignment should not be allowed to go on on the grounds that the DSS, which has been keeping him in custody since August 3, 2019, had not allowed the defendants to consult with their lawyer after the charges were filed.

    According to him, the court should protect its integrity by refusing to allow the arraignment to proceed when the prosecution continued to disobey the court order made on September 24, 2019 for the release.

    The prosecution led by Hassan Liman (SAN) asked the court to dismiss the objection, saying that what was more important was that the defendants had been served with the charges.

  • #RevolutionNow Protest: FG to appeal judgement, drag judge before NJC for granting Sowore bail

    #RevolutionNow Protest: FG to appeal judgement, drag judge before NJC for granting Sowore bail

    Strong indications emerged last night that the federal government may officially file complaints against Justice Taiwo Taiwo at the National Judicial Council (NJC) on account of his decision to grant bail to the convener of #RevolutionNow protest, Mr. Omoyele Sowore.

    Recall that Justice Taiwo of the Federal High Court in Abuja admitted Sowore to bail on Tuesday and dismissed the objection raised by the Department of State Security (DSS) to the bail.

    According to a report by The Nation, the Nigerian security and intelligence community met on the matter yesterday and resolved to appeal the judgement.

    It also decided to petition the NJC on the issue.

    A top government source, who spoke to the paper on the condition of anonymity, said that anyone standing trial for treasonable felony is not entitled to bail.

    He said :”Sowore’s bail is likely to bring trouble for that judge. A report has been prepared to report him to NJC in view of the fact that, as far as this country, it is known that a person charged treasonable felony has no bail option.

    “So, the security and intelligence community in the country is shocked by the judgement.

    “And there is a consensus that the judgement should not only be appealed, but that the NJC should be petitioned about the conduct and abuse of power by the judge.”

    Sowore was arrested and kept in the custody of the DSS since 3rd of August, 2019, for allegedly calling for “revolution” through the group’s protest fixed for 5th of September 2019.

    Sowore on Thursday, commenced a contempt suit against the Director-General of the DSS,Yusuf Bichi, for allegedly disobeying the order granting him bail.

    On Wednesday his lawyers submitted his passport to a Deputy Chief Registrar of the court.

    Meanwhile Sowore remained in the custody of the Department of Security Service (SSS) last night, 72 hours after a Federal High Court granted him bail.

    His lawyers claimed yesterday that the DSS refused to comply with the court order even after his bail conditions had been met.

    It was gathered that a court bailiff bearing the documents confirming that the bail conditions had been met was not allowed into the DSS premises Abuja yesterday morning.

    He was asked to come back at 12 noon which he did.

    This time,the document was collected from him and Sowore’s lawyers at the gate,yet he was not released.

    Sowore is facing trial for treaons -related charges.

    Justice Taiwo Taiwo ordered the release the convener of #RevolutionNow protest on Tuesday on the condition that his lawyer , Mr. Femi Falana (SAN), will produce him for arraignment whenever he is required.

  • Days after meeting bail conditions, DSS refuses to free Sowore

    Days after meeting bail conditions, DSS refuses to free Sowore

    The Department of State Services is still holding on to Omoyele Sowore, despite meeting the bail conditions as spelt out by the Federal High Court in Abuja on Tuesday.

    Sowore’s lawyer, Femi Falana, a leading human rights lawyer and senior advocate told newsmen that he was at a loss as to why the detainee has not been released.
    No reason has been given by the agency for its failure to comply with the court order delivered on Tuesday, September 24, 2019, he said.

    Justice Taiwo Taiwo ordered the release of Mr Sowore, who is also the publisher of Sahara Reporters, after the expiration of the 45-day detention that his court-sanctioned in August.

    Sowore was arrested in Lagos, a few days to his inspired protests for #revolutionnow across Nigeria.

    On the eve of the expiration of the detention order, the DSS brought a new charge, accusing him of not just treasonable felony, but also money laundering and cyberstalking President Buhari.

    Femi Falana (SAN), leading Sowore’s legal team said the order issued by the court on August 8, 2019, permitting the DSS to hold the activist for 45 days, expired on September 21, while appealing to the court to issue a consequential order releasing his client.

    DSS’ lawyer, G.O Agbadua, said that since new charges were filed against the activist on September 20, it was lawful to continue to keep him until arraignment.

    But Falana said, “Filing of charges cannot metamorphose into a detention order. A citizen cannot detain a citizen in anticipation of the arraignment.”

    Agbadua had earlier withdrawn the DSS’ application asking for the extension of the period of the detention of Sowore for further 20 days.

    Agbadua’s request for the withdrawal of the said application was based on the fact that charges had been filed against the activist.

    Falana also withdrew Sowore’s application for bail on the grounds that the application had become academic since the order of detention had expired.

  • Sowore meets bail condition, to be released from DSS custody

    Sowore meets bail condition, to be released from DSS custody

    Information reaching TNG has it that the convener of #RevolutionNow protest Omoyele Sowore may be released from the custody of the Department of State Service (DSS) any moment from now.

    His lawyer, Femi Falana, has been spotted at the headquarters of the DSS in Abuja to effect the release.

    A Federal High Court in Abuja on Tuesday ordered his release, directing the publisher of Sahara Reporters to deposit his passport at the court’s registry.

    “I am currently at their headquarters. Having complied with the condition given by the court, I am here for Sowore’s release,” Falana told Punch correspondent on the telephone at about 4pm on Wednesday.

    An “affidavit of compliance with court order” deposed to by a lawyer in Falana’s law firm, Mr. Marshal Abubakar has been filed before the Federal High Court in Abuja as confirmation of the submission of Sowore’s to the Deputy Chief Registrar of the court.

    Details shortly…

  • Sowore endured difficult times trying to speak up for a better Nigeria- Banky W

    Musician turned politician, Banky W has reacted to the ruling of a Federal High Court in Abuja ordering the Department of State Services to immediately release pro-democracy activist, Omoyele Sowore, on bail.

    TheNewsGuru recalls that Omoyele Sowore, a co-convener of the RevolutionNow movement was granted bail by an Abuja Federal High Court on Tuesday.

    The Justice Taiwo Taiwo-led court said there was no longer a subsisting order holding Sowore in detention, hence the need to grant him bail.

    Justice Taiwo, however, ordered Sowore to deposit his international passport to the court while releasing him to his lawyer, Femi Falana.

    The co-convener of the RevolutionNow movement had allegedly called for a revolution over the supposed failure of the current Federal Government.

    Reacting via his Twitter handle, Banky-W said Sowore endured hardship trying to speak up for a better Nigeria.

    “I’m so thankful that our justice system made the right call by granting the release of Omoyele Sowore. Nigeria has a way of punishing the innocent and trampling on the rights, dreams and hopes of the regular citizens.

    “Every time our leaders do wrong and get away with it, we lose a little piece of our soul. We become numb, we lose hope, and we subconsciously accept that this is how things are and there’s nothing we can say or do to change it.

    “You didn’t need to be a voter or volunteer for Mr Sowore to see that this was clearly an infringement on a basic human right and a grave injustice. Freedom of speech and the right to peacefully protest is the unassailable right of every Nigerian citizen.

    “May God bless those in our justice system who stood on the right side of history by doing the right thing.

    “May God strengthen, comfort and bless Sowore, his wife and family as they have endured the most difficult of times while only being guilty of attempting to speak up for a better Nigeria,” he wrote.

     

  • Why Sowore was not released yesterday – Falana

    A human rights activist and Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Mr. Femi Falana has said that the Convener of #RevolutionNow protest, Omoyele Sowore, was not released yesterday by the Department of State Services (DSS) because his international passport, which the court asked him to deposit, was in Lagos.

    Justice Taiwo Taiwo of the Federal High Court Abuja yesterday ordered the immediate release of Sowore who has been in custody of the DSS, since August 3, 2019.

    Justice Taiwo said the release was contingent on the grounds that the order of detention made on August 8, has elapsed.

    The court ordered that Sowore would not be kept longer than the 45 days granted by it without a fresh application for his further detention.

    The 45 days elapsed on September 21.

    When the matter came up Monday, the court held that following the expiration of the detention order for 45 days and the absence of any application for Sowore’s further detention, the court is inclined to order for his release.

    The prosecution had initially applied for the extension of the order for another 20 days.

    However, the prosecution counsel, Godwin Agbadua announced withdrawal of the application of the motion, adding that the defendant had already been charged with treasonable felony, money laundering as well as insulting the president.

    He submitted that filing of a criminal charge that carries punishment of death is enough grounds for the court to allow for the detention of Sowore.

    “The moment information is filed such a person cannot be said to be held illegally”, he said.

    However, Sowore’s lawyer, Falana, reacting said, filing of an information cannot metamorphous into a remand order.

    Falana also submitted that treasonable felony, one of the charges against Sowore was not a capital offence.

    “He cannot ask the court to detain a citizen prospectively or in anticipation of arraignment of a defendant under his custody,” Falana said.

    He subsequently urged the court to make a consequential order for the release of Sowore since the earlier order expired on September 21.

    Justice Taiwo in a short ruling held that there is no application before him for extension of the detention order and that there is evidence that the prosecution has concluded its investigation of the defendant.

    He, accordingly ordered for the immediate release of Sowore.

    Justice Taiwo ordered that Sowore be released to his lawyer, Falana, who must produce him whenever he is needed.

    He, however, ordered that Sowore deposits his international passport with the court.

    But Falana told newsmen yesterday that Sowore could not produce the passport because it was in Lagos.

    The senior lawyer said the Publisher of Sahara Reporters will regain his freedom today after producing the document.

     

  • How I was maltreated in DSS detention —Sowore

    How I was maltreated in DSS detention —Sowore

    The co-convener of #RevolutionNow protest, Omoyele Sowore, who has been in the detention of the Department of State Services since August 3, 2019, has accused the DSS of maltreating him.

    “I was abducted in the middle of the night. I was taken to one of your facilities in Lagos. I was beaten up, rough-handled on my way to the facility in the car. And my cousin, who was in the room with me, was also beaten and handcuffed, and my properties were forcefully seized. And when I got there, of course, the maltreatment continued, they threw me on a cold floor and locked the door.

    “I had no contact with even the guards for two nights; I was in that facility before I was flown here by your agents. So, I was seriously maltreated,” Sowore reportedly said during an interrogation session by DSS operatives.

    The National Legal Adviser of African Action Congress, the political party on whose platform Sowore contested the presidential race in this year’s general elections, Inibehe Effiong shared the “Transcript from DSS Interrogation of Sowore Upon Abduction – Excerpt 1,” on his Facebook page on Monday.

    According to the transcript, Sowore was interrogated by five DSS operatives in the presence of his lawyer, one “Barrister Sam.”

    One Usman Usman, a DSS operative, who led the interrogation, was said to have told Sowore that, “We’ll be asking you questions and our advice is for you to be truthful to the best of your knowledge. We’ll not force you to say anything. Whatever question we ask and you have a problem with or you don’t have an answer to or you don’t want to answer, there is no compulsion, you simply tell us you’re not going to answer these questions.”

    When asked by Usman to say “If in the course of your being here anybody has molested you in any way or maltreated you?” Sowore said, “Yes,” and went on to give the response above.

    On whether he was denied food, the detainee said, “While in your facility in Lagos, yes, but I decided that because of their hostility I won’t take any food until I am allowed to talk to a lawyer. I continued to refuse food; until I was allowed to speak with a lawyer, and I have seen my lawyer, but I am still being denied access to my immediate family.”

    Asked if he had made calls to his family members, Sowore replied his interrogator, “I’ve not made any calls to them. My brother is outside; he wasn’t allowed to see me as we speak.

    “No, I’ve not made any call to my family members, I only made calls to people I remember their numbers to bring me food and asked them to call my brother. My brother came in today. But he was denied access to me, so I haven’t been able to see him and as a result, speak with my mum, wife and kids.”(sic)

  • #RevolutionNow: Sowore’s wife accuses DSS of cutting off phone contact husband

    #RevolutionNow: Sowore’s wife accuses DSS of cutting off phone contact husband

    Opeyemi Sowore, wife of detained activist and Publisher of Saharareporters, Omoyele Sowore, said she and her two children have only been able to speak with him twice, by phone, since his arrest on 2 August in Lagos.

    “The calls were heavily monitored,” Opeyemi Sowore told NorthJersey Record.

    After she gave an interview to U.S.- based nonprofit broadcast outlet Democracy Now! a few weeks ago, the Nigerian government cut off all communication, she added.

    Sowore has used the word “revolution” to promote democratic governance, including in the protest he was organizing in August, which called for education, security, infrastructure and fair wages, Opeyemi Sowore said, but the Nigerian government, she said, sees the term as negative.

    Opeyemi Sowore called the charges against her husband “frivolous” and said they also stemmed from his criticism of the Nigerian president during a TV interview and movement of between $15,000 and $16,000 to a Nigerian bank to pay salaries of Sahara Reporters journalists working in Nigeria, she said.

    “This is basically a violation of his human rights,” Opeyemi Sowore said.

    Sowore and his wife in normal times live in Haworth, in Bergen county in New Jersey. She said Sowore was in Nigeria on a business trip when he was arrested.

    She said on the day he was arrested on 2 August, she got a text message from him saying ‘I love you’.

    “It came out of nowhere,” Opeyemi Sowore said. Within an hour, she started getting repeated calls from his cousin. Her husband had been detained, she found out, because he was helping organize what she called a peaceful protest for Aug. 5″.

    He was held for four or five days without officially being charged, and no warrant was issued for his arrest, his wife said. Sowore is among at least five other journalists and activists behind bars in Nigeria.

  • Charges against Sowore: Buhari-led govt now at unprecedented level of paranoia — Soyinka

    Charges against Sowore: Buhari-led govt now at unprecedented level of paranoia — Soyinka

    Nobel laureate, Prof Wole Soyinka, says the Muhammadu Buhari administration has attained an “unprecedented level of paranoia” following the charges of treason filed against the publisher of Sahara Reporters, Omoyele Sowore.

    In a statement on Saturday, Soyinka said the nation had failed to learn from past experiences.

    He said, “This is utterly depressing news. So, the Sowore affair has moved beyond harassment and taken on a sinister direction. Outside the country where I happened to be engaged at the moment, I can testify that the immediate reaction around me was to dismiss this as yet another grotesque product of fake news, of which Nigerians have become the greatest practitioners. I confess that I also joined in this school of thought – at the start.

    “Further checks have however confirmed that this government has indeed attained an unprecedented level of paranoia. I do not believe that the Justice department itself believes in these improbable charges, as formally publicised. So, once again, we inscribe in our annals another season of treasonable felony, History still guards some lessons we have yet to digest, much less from which to learn. Welcome to the Club, Mr. Omoyele Sowore.”

    The Federal Government had on Friday filed seven counts of treasonable felony and money laundering against Sowore.

    The charges were filed a day before the expiration of the detention order of the Federal High Court in Abuja permitting the Department of State Services to keep the activist for 45 days.

  • Don Jazzy, Adekunle Gold, others react over new charges against Sowore

    Don Jazzy, Adekunle Gold, others react over new charges against Sowore

    Nigerians all over were shocked about the news of Federal Government slamming a fresh seven-count charge against detained political activist and convener of the RevolutionNow Protest, Omoyele Sowore.

    Sowore has been accused of treason, money laundering and cyberstalking President Buhari.

     

    Reacting to the new development, singer, Adekunle Gold said, ‘I really don’t want to believe those fictional charges against Sowore. Treasonable what? A fucking Joke’.

     

    In the same vein, Don Jazzy stated, ‘This dangerous precedent of stifling opposition voices and dissenting opinions has survived enough. Let’s not pretend our nascent democracy isn’t being sabotaged when citizens shudder at the thought of people they elected into power. I plead for Sowore’.

     

    Read the reactions by other Nigerians below