Activist, Omoyele Sowore was
arrested for planning to stage a revolutionary protest, tagged:
‘#RevolutionNow.’ The Department of State Service, DSS, later got the nod of a
Federal High court in Abuja to detain him for 45 days.
Nobel laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka
said the government of President Muhammadu Buhari has attained an unprecedented
level of paranoia for charging activist, Omoyele Sowore with treason.
On the eve of the
expiration of the 45 days, the Federal Government Friday filed seven counts of
treasonable felony and money laundering against Sowore.
Sowore, publisher of
Sahara Reporters and a presidential candidate in the February 2019 presidential
election, was charged along with Olawale Bakare, also known as Mandate.
Soyinka, in a statement on
Saturday said the news that Sowore had been charged with treason was utterly
depressing, saying that the affair had moved beyond harassment and taken on a
sinister direction.
“This is utterly depressing
news. So, the Sowore affair has moved beyond harassment and taken on a sinister
direction. Outside the country where I happened to be engaged at the moment, I
can testify that the immediate reaction around me was to dismiss this as yet
another grotesque product of Fake News, of which Nigerians have become the
greatest practitioners.
“I confess that I also
joined in this school of thought – at the start. Further checks have however
confirmed that this government has indeed attained an unprecedented level of
paranoia.
“I do not believe that the
Justice department itself believes in these improbable charges, as formally
publicised. So, once again, we inscribe in our annals another season of
treasonable felony, History still guards some lessons we have yet to digest,
much less from which to learn. Welcome to the Club, Mr. Omoyele Sowore,”
Soyinka stated.
The charge was signed on
behalf of the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice,
Abubakar Malami (SAN), by Aminu Alilu, a Chief State Counsel in the Department
of Public Prosecutions of the Federation, the Federal Ministry of Justice.
The charge was filed a day
before the expiration of the detention order of the Federal High Court in Abuja
permitting the Department of State Service to keep the activist for 45 days.
The detention order elapses on September 21.
In the charge instituted
against the defendants, the prosecution accuses Sowore and his co-defendant of
committing conspiracy to commit treasonable felony in breach of section 516 of
the Criminal Code Act by allegedly staging “a revolution campaign on September
5, 2019 aimed at removing the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed
Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria”.
The prosecution also
accuses them of committing the actual offence of reasonable felony in breach of
section, 4(1)(c) of the Criminal Code Act, by using the platform of Coalition
for Revolution, in August 2019 in Abuja, Lagos and other parts of Nigeria, to
stage the #RevolutionNow protest allegedly aimed at removing the President.
It also accuses Sowore of
cybercrime offences in violation of section 24(1)(b) of the Cybercrimes
(Prohibition, Prevention) Act, by “knowingly” sending “messages by means of
press interview granted on Arise Television network which you knew to be false
for the purpose of causing insult, enmity, hatred and ill-will on the person of
the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”
It also accuses Sowore of
money laundering offences in breach of section 15(1) of the Money Laundering
(Prohibition) Act, 2011 by alleged transferring by means of SWIFT wire.
No comments:
Post a Comment