Amnesty international has reacted
to the seven-count charge of treasonable felony and money laundering against
detained activist and Convener of #RevolutionNow protest, Omoyele Sowore by the
Federal Government.
Sowore, a presidential candidate
in the February 2019 presidential election was charged along with Olawale
Bakare, also known as Mandate.
The charges were signed on behalf
of the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar
Malami (SAN), by Aminu Alilu, a Chief State Counsel in the Department of Public
Prosecutions of the Federation, the Federal Ministry of Justice.
In the charges instituted against
the defendants, the prosecution accused Sowore and his co-defendant of
committing conspiracy to commit treasonable felony in breach of section 516 of
the Criminal Code Act by allegedly staging “a revolution campaign on September
5, 2019 aimed at removing the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed
Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”
The prosecution also accused them
of committing the actual offence of reasonable felony in breach of section,
4(1)(c) of the Criminal Code Act, by using the platform of Coalition for
Revolution, in August 2019 in Abuja, Lagos and other parts of Nigeria, to stage
the #RevolutionNow protest allegedly aimed at removing the President.
It also accused Sowore of
cybercrime offences in violation of section 24(1)(b) of the Cybercrimes
(Prohibition, Prevention) Act, by “knowingly” sending “messages by means of
press interview granted on Arise Television network which you knew to be false
for the purpose of causing insult, enmity, hatred and ill-will on the person of
the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”
Reacting, Amnesty international
in a post on its verified Twitter page condemned the charges.
The global rights human
organization described the charges against Sowore “as an attempt by the
Nigerian authorities to deprive Sowore of his human rights”
The post read: “Amnesty
International condemns the bizarre charges pressed on activist Omoyele Sowore
for expressing his views in media interviews.
“The trumped up charges he is facing
show an attempt by the Nigerian authorities to deprive him of his human rights;
Omoyele Sowore continued incarceration on application of the Terrorism Act for
exercising his right to freedom of expression is a misuse of the criminal
system to silence dissent.
“We call on the Nigerian
authorities to respect and protect human rights of all persons without
discrimination and ensure that it does not use its laws to justify violations
of Omoyele Sowore human rights.”
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