Omoyele Sowore, a human rights advocate and African Action Congress (AAC) presidential candidate, is scheduled to be transported to Lagos by Nigerian police, possibly for arraignment in court.
In a phone call with our reporter, Mr. Sowore’s attorney, Abubakar Marshall of Falana and Falana’s chambers, stated, “The most recent information we have is that the police plan to take him to Lagos today.”
According to this newspaper, the action was taken to satisfy jurisdictional requirements, which call for charging a defendant in the location where the alleged offense was committed.
But according to Mr. Marshall, the police have not yet charged the activist. “At this time, their plan is to move him to Lagos,” the attorney continued.
A police source who wished to remain unnamed confirmed the plan to our reporter on Tuesday, saying that Sowore will be moved to Lagos because that is where the accusations against him were made and that “if he’s to be taken to court, it’ll be in Lagos not Abuja.”
After accepting an invitation from the police regarding his exposé on police officers allegedly extorting drivers along Ikeja in Lagos State, Mr. Sowore was taken into custody by the police in Abuja on Monday night.
Reports state that despite a strong security presence, Mr. Sowore came at the FID facility in Abuja at precisely 10 a.m. on Monday.
The police invited the activist to be questioned after he posted a video clip on social media claiming that officers at a Lagos checkpoint had extorted him.
Mr. Sowore was under investigation for alleged offenses such as resisting and obstructing public officers, disobeying legal orders, and cyberstalking, according to the police invitation letter dated January 23 that was sent to him.
Supporters of Sowore demonstrate in Lagos
To demand the release of Mr. Sowore, the group’s convener, members of the Take It Back Movement (TIB) in Lagos stormed the Lagos State Police Command Headquarters Tuesday morning to around 11 a.m., the demonstrators, headed by Juwon Sanyaolu, the TIB national coordinator, came to the Lagos police headquarters with placards that said, among other things, “Free Sowore,” “Stop Harassment of Citizens on Nigerian Roads,” and “End Police Brutality and Extortion.”
Sowore was taken into custody.
After being questioned, he was given strict bail conditions, which he refused to accept, leading to his detention on Monday.
After his “refusal to accept their illegal bail condition,” Mr. Sowore posted on social media Monday night that the police were detaining him until further notice.
He was imprisoned at the Abattoir police station in Guzape, Abuja, which was formerly utilized by the now defunct Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) notorious for the brutal practices of its officers.
The police earlier granted Mr Sowore bail on Monday, after interrogating him at the Force Intelligence Department (FID) compound in Abuja.
But the activist described the bail conditions, including the furnishing of a level 17 civil servant as a guarantor and surrendering his passport to the police, as “illegal”.
Even when the terms were reexamined, he claimed in a social media post on Monday that he had rejected the bail.
Femi Falana, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria and Mr. Sowore’s attorney, supported Sowore’s position by referencing a Court of Appeal ruling in Dasuki v. Director-General of SSS.
In a letter to the Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of Police in charge of the FID on Monday, Mr. Falana said that the Court of Appeal had ruled that such restrictions were unlawful.
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