There was tension and confusion on Friday at the Kuje Magistrate Court in Abuja as police officers forcefully re-arrested human rights activist and Sahara Reporters publisher, Omoyele Sowore, moments after he was granted bail.
Sowore, alongside several others, had appeared before the court to face charges connected to the #FreeNnamdiKanu protest held earlier in the week in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). The demonstration, according to police, violated an existing restriction on public gatherings near sensitive government locations.
Presiding magistrate Abubakar Umar Sai’id had earlier granted bail to Sowore and 13 other defendants, including Aloy Ejimakor (former counsel to IPOB leader Nnamdi Kanu), Emmanuel Kanu, Joshua Emmanuel, Wilson Anyalewechi, Okere Kingdom Nnamdi, Clinton Chimeneze, Gabriel Joshua, Isiaka Husseini, Onyekachi Ferdinand, Amadi Prince, Edison Ojisom, Godwill Obioma, and Chima Onuchukwu.
The court set bail at N500,000 for each defendant, requiring two sureties, a verified National Identification Number (NIN), three years’ tax clearance certificates, and valid passports as part of the conditions.
However, shortly after the court ruling, police officers stormed the court premises and reportedly manhandled Sowore before bundling him into a police vehicle and whisking him away to an undisclosed location.
Eyewitnesses described the incident as chaotic, saying that the officers’ action disrupted proceedings and drew the ire of court observers and lawyers present.
Sowore’s counsel, Tope Temokun, condemned the incident, describing it as a “brazen act of impunity and contempt for the rule of law.”
“After the court had freely and honorably granted bail to human rights defender Omoyele Sowore on liberal terms, a detachment of police officers, led by CSP Iliyasu, OC Anti-Vice, State CID, invaded the court premises in a display of raw impunity,” Temokun said.
He alleged that the officers “descended violently” on his client and other attendees, physically assaulting them before forcibly taking Sowore away.
“In the course of standing up against this illegality, I and others were assaulted; I sustained injuries, and my lawyer’s bib was blood-stained in the chaos that ensued,” he added.
Temokun insisted that the police had no legal basis to re-arrest Sowore, noting that he was not taken to prison, but rather to an unknown destination, in what he described as an abduction under the guise of arrest.
Sowore’s arrest on Thursday, shortly after leaving the Federal High Court in Abuja, had already sparked public outcry. The activist was accused of leading protesters to “restricted areas” while demanding the release of Nnamdi Kanu, the detained leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).
As of the time of filing this report, the police had yet to issue an official statement regarding the reasons for Sowore’s latest detention or his current whereabouts, prompting renewed calls from rights groups and civil society organizations for his immediate release and for the rule of law to be upheld.
