Forty-seven days after the publisher of SaharaReporters, Mr. Omoyele Sowore, was whisked away from his hotel room in Lagos, right activists have finalised plans to begin another round of protests to press for his release by the Federal Government. Sowore, who is also the convener of #RevolutionNow protests, was forcibly taken by officials of the Department of State Services (DSS) on August 3, 2019, while mobilising Nigerians to protest what he termed bad governance and declining social welfare.
To legalise his seizure, the DSS had approached a Federal High Court in Abuja for an order to detain the online publisher-cum-politician for 45 days, which would, in the first instance, lapse on September 21, 2019. The DSS had originally applied for a 90-day detention order from the court, pleading that the time frame would enable it complete investigations into the treasonable activities of the suspect.
However, peeved by the antics of the secret police and encouraged by the position of some lawyers that the suspect committed no offense that warrants such punitive detention, Sowore’s supporters and other good governance and human rights activists staged a peaceful demonstration in Abuja, promising to continue such marches until their colleague gets justice. Read more