By Damola Emmauel
Omoyele Sowore, publisher of SaharaReporters and convener of #RevolutionNow, was, Tuesday, granted bail by the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja after spending 52 days in the detention camp of the Department of Security Services, DSS.
He was picked up at his hotel suite in Ikeja, Lagos, on August 3, 2019, by operatives of the DSS two days before a rally tagged #Revolutionnow. The department said, through the act, Sowore was plotting to overthrow the Federal Government of Nigeria.
Sowore was the presidential candidate of the Africa Action Congress, AAC, in the February 23, presidential poll.
The DSS would later procure a Federal High Court order to detain the activist for 45 days in the first instance.
But on Tuesday, the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja struck out an application by the DSS to further detain the SaharaReporters publisher.
This was sequel to the withdrawal of the application by the state counsel.
At Tuesday’s sitting, Femi Falana, Sowore’s lawyer, had persuaded the court to order immediate release of his client as the prosecution was no longer interested in detaining any longer.
However, counsel to the DSS objected to the oral application for release, insisting that a formal suit had been filed wherein Sowore was accused of treasonable felony.
Responding, Sowore’s counsel said the application for bail was withdrawn and the prosecutor’s application for further remand was also withdrawn. He stressed that consequently, the new charges could not metamorphose into a remand order.
Therefore, Falana urged the court to disregard the submission of the prosecution, saying that the prosecutor cannot ask the court to detain a citizen prospectively and, in anticipation of the arraignment of the defendant, order his detention.
Ordering Sowore’s release, the court ordered the activist to deposit his international passport with the court registrar within 48 hours,.
