Omoyele 'Yele' Sowore, a presidential candidate in the Nigerian February 2019 elections was arrested by the Department of State Services (DSS) on August 3, 2019, in Lagos, Nigeria, after he called for nation-wide protests as part of the #RevolutionNow movement he started. [1]
The Coalition for Revolution (CORE), a political movement led by Sowore called for a nation-wide protest march themed Revolution Now, to commence from August 5, 2019. [2] In July, 2019, CORE issued its 5-core demands for Revolution Now, being: [3]
On July, 2019, Sowore via his micro-blogging handle announced the hashtag #RevolutionNow while communicating the commencement date via a graphic post. [4] This was to press the 5-point demands of CORE and garner widespread attention. [5]
Nigeria's Department of State Services (DSS) arrested Sowore at his Lagos residence on August 3, 2019, by 1.25 am. His online news platform Sahara Reporters first broke the story before other local news platforms followed suit. [6] A DSS petition to keep Sowore in custody for 45 days pending investigations was granted on August 8 by an Abuja court, headed by Justice Taiwo Taiwo. [7]
Sowore was charged to court for treasonable and money laundering felonies after being in detention for 45 days. The breakdown of the Nigeria State charges against him were:
For frequent calls for adjournment of the case against Sowore, a Federal High Court in Abuja fined the Federal Government the sum of NGN 200,000. [11] The Federal Government confirmed the fine's payment at a resumed hearing. [12]
On August 23, 48 press freedom advocates petitioned the United Nations (UN) and the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, to urgently intervene by securing Sowere's immediate release. They also described Sowore's arrest as a gross violation of his human rights and a threat to press freedom in Nigeria, [13] and by September 26, resent an update to their appeal for intervention. [14] Also in September, another group of 72 writers, academics and activists, which includes Edmund Phelps, Anya Schiffrin, Sheila Coronel, Okey Ndibe and Bruce Shapiro sent an open letter to demand that Nigeria drop charges against Omoyele Sowore. [15] Ope Sowore, his wife led a group of protesters to the UN Plaza building where President Buhari was in attendance [16] and also led supporters to stage a rally outside the office of U.S. senator Bob Menedez to demand her husband's release. [17]
Omoyele Sowore's was finally released on December 24, 2019, on bail. His release came to be after the Nigeria's Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Mr. Abubakar Malami (SAN), said in a statement on Tuesday that he had issued a directive to the DSS to release him and others. This was after the Attorney General took over the prosecution of all charges against Sowore from the DSS after issuing a letter to intent on December 11, 2019, to the Director General of the DSS directing them to forward all the case files to the AGF's office. [18] In the same vein, Sowore's legal team called for a total withdraw of charges pending any other criminal charges against his client, insisting that there was no evidence to get the ‘Revolution Now’ protests convener convicted on present charges. [19]
Senior lawyers (>25 years of practice)
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The University of Lagos, popularly known as UNILAG, is a public research university located in Lagos, Nigeria and was founded in 1962. UNILAG is one of the first generation universities in Nigeria and is ranked among the top universities in the world in major education publications. The university presently has three campuses in the mainland of Lagos. Whereas two of its campuses are located at Yaba, it's college of medicine is located at Idi-Araba, Surulere. Its main campus is largely surrounded by the Lagos lagoon and has 802 acres of land. The University of Lagos currently admits over 9,000 undergraduate students annually and enrolls over 57,000 students.
The Federal Ministry of Justice is the legal arm of the Federal Government of Nigeria, primarily concerned with bringing cases before the judiciary that are initiated or assumed by the government. The headquarters of the organisation are located in the Maitama district, Abuja.
Sahara Reporters is a news agency based in New York City that focuses on promoting citizen journalism by encouraging everyday people to report stories about corruption, human rights abuses and other political misconduct in Africa, with special focus on Nigeria. Sahara Reporters specializes in exposing corruption and government malfeasance.
Ralph Uwazuruike is a Nigerian activist. He is the leader of the Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB); a group canvassing for the secession and sovereignty of Eastern Nigeria. He holds degrees in Political Science from Punjab University, India, and Law from Bombay University, India. Uwazuruike adopts the principle of nonviolence as propagated by Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr., as the philosophy of the struggle. He has been detained several times and charged with treason in Nigerian courts. On 28 April 2010, he was visited in prison by Chukwuemeka Odimegwu Ojukwu and his wife, Bianca.
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Nnamdi Okwu Kanu is a British-Nigerian political activist who advocates for the secession and independence of Biafra from Nigeria. He is the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), which he founded in 2014. The main aim of IPOB is to restore the defunct separatist state of Biafra which existed in Nigeria's Eastern Region during the Nigerian Civil War of 1967–1970.
The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) is a separatist group in Nigeria that aims to restore the defunct Republic of Biafra, a country which seceded from Nigeria prior to the Nigerian Civil War (1967–1970). Since 2021, IPOB and other Biafran separatist groups have been fighting a low-level guerilla conflict in southeastern Nigeria against the Nigerian government. The group was founded in 2012 by Nnamdi Kanu and Uche Mefor. Kanu is known as a British Nigerian political activist known for his advocacy of the contemporary Biafran independence movement. It was deemed a terrorist organization by the Nigerian government in 2017 under the Nigerian Terrorism Act. As of May 2022, the United Kingdom started denying asylum to members of IPOB who engaged in human rights abuses, though the U.K. government clarified that IPOB had not been designated as a terrorist organisation.
Omoyele "Yele" Sowore is a Nigerian human rights activist, citizen reporter, writer, lecturer and pro-democracy campaigner, known for founding the online news agency Sahara Reporters. In August 2018, he founded the African Action Congress party and ran as its presidential candidate in the 2019 Nigerian general election. Sowore also ran for President in the 2023 Nigerian General elections.
Abubakar MalamiSAN, is a Nigerian lawyer and politician who served as minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation from 2015 to 2023.
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African Action Congress (AAC) is a left-wing, Nigerian political party created by a Nigerian 2019 presidential aspirant and Publisher at Sahara Reporters; Omoyele Sowore in a bid to contest in the 2019 general elections in the Federal Republic of Nigeria as President.
Opeyemi Oluwole Sowore is the Nigerian American wife of Omoyele Sowore. Born 10 November 1973 USA She came to public view after several advocacy for Omoyele Sowore to be released after the journalist was rearrested by the Department of State Services on charges of threat to National Security including treasonable felony, cyberstalking and money laundering on December 6, being earlier arrested on August 3, 2019.
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Nelson Olanipekun is a Nigerian human rights lawyer, entrepreneur, and founder of Citizens' Gavel. He graduated from Ekiti State University and the University of Ibadan. He started Citizens' Gavel in 2017, which aims to improve the pace of justice delivery through the use of technology. He is notable for being a co-strategist and legal counsel for the End SARS campaign alongside Segun Awosanya in 2017.
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