Femi Falana, the lead counsel of Omoyele Sowore, has cried foul about an alleged plan by the Nigerian government to cook up fresh charges against his client.
Sowore met his bail conditions last week but the DSS had claimed that they had not been able to release him because no one had come for him. Subsequently, supporters, family members, and lawyers had turned up at DSS headquarters in Abuja on Saturday, November 8 but the embattled #RevolutionNow convener was still not released.
Falana who spoke on Channels TV yesterday stated that the Federal Government wants to extend Sowore’s detention.
I was reliably informed last night by a security official that the government was currently fishing for evidence. An attempt is being made to file a fresh charge on Tuesday so that there will be an excuse that ‘we are arraigning them in court, hence we are unable to release them.
If you recall, that was what was done when Justice Taiwo Taiwo granted Sowore bail on September 24. For a whole week, the order of the court was flouted. And then, of course, on September 30, he was arraigned together with Olawale Bakare. We are ready for them.
The Federal Government has alleged that the controversial judgment debt of $9.6bn was obtained fraudulently by P & ID. But the commercial court in London recently ordered Nigeria to pay £250,000 within 14 days as a precondition for filing an appeal against the judgment.
The said sum of £250,000 has since been paid to P & ID in strict compliance with the orders of Her Majesty’s High Court in London.
But since national security takes precedence over the rule of law at home, the orders of the Federal High Court for the immediate release of Messrs Sowore and Bakare have been brazenly disobeyed by the State Security Service.
Femi Falana – Channels TV
