Defiant Department of State Services, DSS, Friday morning, re-arrested the convener of #RevolutionNow, Mr. Omoyele Sowore, hours after he was released from their gulag Thursday evening.
The DSS stormed the courtroom to effect his re-arrest but his legal team and supporters resisted them. After a struggle during which the operatives wrestled Sowore to the ground right inside the courtroom, they finally took the activist away.
He is currently being detained at the DSS Headquarters in Abuja though no reason has been given for his re-arrest.
After a standstill that lasted over three hours inside the courtroom, Sowore’s lawyer, Mr Femi Falana, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, insisted that the DSS desecrated the sanctity of the altar of justice. The arrest, the SAN insisted, ought to have been effected outside the court premises.
Falana, in a phone conversation told Channels Television that the DSS claimed they wanted to ask Sowore a few questions but ended up detaining him and his co-defendant, Bakare.
His re-arrest came barely 24 hours after being released alongside his co-defendant, Olawale Bakare.
They were released at exactly 7:15 pm on Thursday, hours after Justice Ijeoma Ojukwu of the Federal High Court in Abuja had expressed displeasure over their continued detention by the agency.
Subsequently, Ojukwu ordered that the defendants be released within the next 24 hours and adjourned the case till Friday, December 6, for a report of compliance.
Sowore, a presidential candidate in the February 2019 elections, was arrested on August 3, just days to a planned protest tagged #revolutionnow against “bad governance” in the country.
Both he and his co-defendant are facing seven counts bordering on conspiracy to commit treasonable felony in breach of Section 516 of the Criminal Code Act, money laundering and cyber crimes, among others.
They pleaded not guilty to the charge and were granted bail on October 4, in the sum of N100m and N50m respectively with two sureties in like sum.
They, however, were not released until yesterday and re-arrested today.
Earlier on Friday, Sowore, before his re-arrest, had told Channels Television that the Department of State Service (DSS) had threatened to kill him.
He claimed that the DSS had told him that he would not walk out of their detention camp alive.
“It might be my only word on the record before they kill me; this is an attempt to assassinate me in court,”he told the television station. “They came with guns and they tried to shoot and they dragged me down in front of a judge after I have been granted bail.
“I said it that these are a bunch of lawless people and they were reluctant to respect the order of the court. Now, they have shown it to the whole world.
“They tried to break me in prison, sent delegations to me, offering all kinds of things; and I refused; and they promised that I will not walk out of their detention alive. That is what they have come to implement today.”
