The Presidency has condemned some
international news outlets ascribing the detention and release of the Convener
of Revolution Now, Omoyele Sowore, to journalism.
Malam Garba Shehu, Senior Special
Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, said Sowore was detained and
later released on bail today by the Department of State Service (DSS) not due
to his work as a journalist but because he called for a revolution to overthrow
the democratically elected government of Nigeria.
Shehu made the clarification in a
statement in Abuja on Tuesday.
The presidential aide, therefore,
frowned at those ascribing his detention and release to his job as a
journalist.
The statement read in part: “The
Presidency wishes to clarify the release on bail of the presidential candidate
of the African Action Congress in the February 2019 elections, Omowale Sowore
“Some international news outlets
have mistakenly been describing his release as that of a journalist.
“For the avoidance of doubt, the
Buhari administration has never, since coming into office in 2015, detained a
journalist, seized copies of newspapers or shut down a medium of information.
“Sowore called for a revolution
to overthrow the democratically elected government of Nigeria. He did so on
television, and from a privileged position as the owner of a widely read
digital newspaper run from the United States of America.
“He founded an organisation,
Revolution Now, to launch, in their own words, “Days of Rage”, with the
publicised purpose of fomenting mass civil unrest and the elected
administration’s overthrow.
“No government will allow anybody
to openly call for destabilization in the country and do nothing.
“The government believes strictly
in observing the rule of law but must safeguard public security and will not
allow trouble makers to incite the public and cause a breakdown of law and
order.’’
Also, the presidential aide
disclosed that Federal Government may appeal against the court judgments that
granted bails to the former National Security Adviser, retired Col. Sambo
Dasuki and Convener of #RevolutionNow, Omoyele Sowore.
Malam Garba Shehu stated this in
an interview with newsmen in Abuja on Tuesday while reacting to the
presidential directive on the release of Dasuki and Sowore.
He said that the decision by the
Nigerian government to release the affected persons on bail was informed by the
need to observe the rules of the law.
“Not withstanding the right of
the government which are very clear to it under the constitution of Nigeria to
appeal this order for their release, to the Court of Appeal in fact to follow
the entire judicial process leading up to the Supreme Court.
“The government has decided, as
an important lesson, that compliance to the rule of law of the court of the
land is important, government is asking them to go, is releasing them.
“The processes of their trials
will continue and the government will be using the same process to assert its
right also appealing the terms and conditions under which the court said they
should be released.
“However, the President wants an
important lesson to be taught in the country – this is that – `we will obey the
order and they will be let go and the processes will go.”
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