The Department of State Services
(DSS) says it arrested Omoyele Sowore, ex-presidential candidate, because he
threatened the public peace and safety with his planned protest.
On Saturday, agents of the
service invaded Sowore’s residence and took him into custody. Before his
arrest, he was promoting a protest tagged ‘#RevolutionNow’.
Speaking with journalists on
Sunday, Peter Afunaya, DSS spokesman, said Sowore crossed the red-line by
calling for a revolution.
He said the secret police would
not ‘’just sit idly and watch any individual, group and their cohorts rise and
threaten the peace, unity, and constitutionalism of the country’’.
“Though there is apprehension and
anxiety among citizens already, we wish to assure friends of Nigeria, and other
law-abiding citizens, that there will be no revolution of any kind come Monday,
August 5, 2019,’’ he said.
“A democratically elected
government is in charge, and we cannot allow any person or group to foment
chaos or fan the ember of revolution.’’
Some Nigerians have spoken
against the arrest of Sowore. In a statement, Wole Soyinka described the action
of the DSS as a breach of the fundamental rights of the ex-presidential
candidate.
‘’Deployment of alarmist
expressions such as ‘treason’, ‘anarchist’, ‘public incitement’, etc by
security forces have become so predictable and banal that they have become
meaningless. Beyond the word ‘revolution, another much mis-used and
misunderstood word, nothing that Sowore has uttered, written, or advocated
suggests that he is embarking on, or urging the public to engage in a forceful
overthrow of government. Nothing that he said to me in private engagement ever
remotely approached an intent to destabilise governance or bypass the normal
democratic means of changing a government,’’ he said.
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