Court Slates Dec 23 To Rule On Sowore’s Release

The Federal High Court in  Abuja on Tuesday slated December 23 to rule on a suit filed by Omoyele Sowore, Convener of #RevolutionNow, to demand his unconditionally release from the Department of State Service’s (DSS) detention.

Sowore, in a motion ex-parte number: FHC/ABJ/CS/1409/19, filed by his lawyer, Femi Falana, SAN, before Justice Inyang Ekwo, demanded an unconditional release in pursuance of the release order made by Justice Ijeoma Ojukwu on November six.

News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the operatives of the DSS had rearrested Sowore shortly after a court proceeding at the Federal High Court in Abuja on December six, barely 24 hours of releasing him and his co-defendant, Olawale Bakare, from custody.

Justice Ojukwu had fixed February 11, 2020, as next adjourned date.

NAN also reports that Abubakar Malami, SAN, the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, had, on December 13, announced his take over of the prosecution of Sowore in the charge of treasonable felony levied against him.

While Sowore is the applicant in the suit, the Director General of State Security Service and the AGF are 1st and 2nd respondents respectively.

However, Marshal Abubakar, who represented Falana, on Tuesday, sought “an order for the production of the applicant for unconditional release in pursuance of the release order made by this Honourable Court on the 6th November 2019.

“ANY OTHER ORDER (S) this Honourable Court may deem fit to make in the circumstance (s) of this case.”

Abubakar said the continued detention of the applicant regardless of the release order made by the court on November six was “unlawful, unconstitutional, null and void.”

He said such action violated “his fundamental right to personal liberty guaranteed by Section 35 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended and Article 6 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (Ratification and Enforcement) Act (CAP A10) Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004.”