Femi Falani, a senior advocate of
Nigeria (SAN), has condemned the clampdown on Sahara Reporters, a publication
founded by Omoyele Sowore, and the invasion of the premises of the Committee
for the Defence of Human Rights (CDHR) where a pro-Sowore protest was scheduled
to take place on Wednesday.
In a coordinated exercise,
security operatives laid siege to the offices of Sahara Reporters and the CDHR
in Lagos.
Sowore, candidate of the African
Action Congress (AAC) in the 2019 presidential election, was in August arrested
by the Department of State Services (DSS) who accused him of threatening the
public peace with his planned nationwide #RevolutionNow protest.
The DSS was subsequently granted
an order to detain him for 45 days.
In a statement on Wednesday,
Falana, who is Sowore’s counsel, condemned the detention of his client and a
few others.
“Contrary to the order of the
federal high court that Mr. Sowore be detained for 45 days, the State Security
Service has incarcerated him for 47 days,” he said.
“Last week, the federal high
court turned down the application for the renewal of its order for the
detention of Messrs Agba Jalingo and Ekanem Ekpo for 14 days. In spite of the
expiration of the detention order of the two journalists they are being held by
the Police in Cross River. Mr. Abayomi Olawale who was arrested on August 5,
2019 has been detained for 45 days by the State Security Service without any
court order whatsoever. These detainees and scores of others languishing in
illegal custody ought to be released forthwith.
“While congratulating the organisers
of the symposium for successfully holding the programme at another venue, the
harassment of law -abiding citizens cannot be tolerated under a regime that is busy negotiating with bandits and
terrorists, bribing them with public funds and granting them amnesty.”
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