The Federal High Court in Abuja declared the arrest of human right activist and presidential aspirant, Omoyele Sowore, over his 2019 #RevolutionNow protest, as ‘illegal’.
Justice Obiora Egwuatu, who presided over the matter, gave the ruling on Monday, and fined the State Security Service (SSS) to pay one million naira to the activist.
Although the office of the Attorney-General of the Federation continues to prosecute Sowore for organizing the protest. The recent court ruling came as another affirmation of court decisions that had validated the #RevolutionNow protest, and declared the arrest of others who participated in it as illegal.
This comes about three months after a judge of the Federal High Court in Abuja, Anwuli Chikere, ordered the SSS to pay two million naira to Mr. Sowore over the unlawful confiscation of his mobile gadgets during his arrest in 2019.
One of Mr Sowore’s lawyers, Marshal Abubakar, who is of the law firm of a prominent human rights lawyer, Femi Falana, described Monday’s judgement as another victory recorded against the ‘notorious’ SSS, adding that it was an affirmation of the rights of Mr Sowore and other Nigerians “to protest, freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and right to movement.”
Sowore was sensationally arrested in a Gestapo manner by SSS operatives in Lagos on August 3, 2019, for planning to organize a protest tagged: “#RevolutionNow”.
The office of the Attorney-General of the Federation subsequently charged him and Olawale Bakare, who was arrested in Osogbo, Osun State, in connection to the protest, with treasonable felony, among other offences.
The SSS continued to detain Mr Sowore despite court orders for his release until the government eventually bowed to local and international pressure in December 2019.
