The publisher of Sahara Reporters, Omoyele Sowore, alongside other activists in Abuja who were carrying out a peaceful procession to mark the New Year were arrested by Nigerian security forces.
According to Sahara Reporters, eyewitnesses say policemen suspected to be with the Rapid Response Squad stormed Gudu junction in Abuja, wounding Sowore before carting him away with other activists at the location.
This won’t be the first time the former presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC) in the February 2019 presidential election, would be arrested.
In August of 2019, Omoyele Sowore was arrested in his home by operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS) for planning to mobilize people in Lagos and many parts of the country for a revolution protest tagged ‘Days of Rage’ to demand a better Nigeria.
Following his arrest, he was charged with treason and two counts of conspiring to stage a revolution and to remove from office president Muhammadu Buhari, otherwise than by constitutional means.
Omoyele Sowore was also charged with cybercrimes for “knowingly send[ing] messages by means of a press interview granted on Arise Television…for the purpose of causing insult…and ill-will on the…President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria” and for money laundering based on the transfer of $19,975 between a Nigerian bank account and a Sahara Reporters held account in New York.
Omoyele Sowore pleaded not guilty to the charges and rejected an offer of bail for roughly $800,000.
Following an outrage over his continued detention, he was eventually granted bail with very stringent conditions. But a few hours after he was released on bail, he was re-arrested.
He was finally granted bail in October in the sum of N100m, with the court demanding N50m security deposit. This is in addition to two sureties in like sum.
The two sureties were expected to have landed property in Abuja worth N100m each and must be resident in the city. The judge also ordered that the two sureties must deposit in the court’s registry the original of their Abuja property’s document of title.
Sahara Reporters
