Journalist and activist, Agba Jalingo, says the regime of
the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), is afraid of Sahara
Reporters’ publisher, Omoyele Sowore.
He said Sowore and the other activists locked up since their
arrest on New Year’s Eve in Abuja committed no crime for holding a protest
against bad governance.
Speaking in an interview with The PUNCH, Jalingo said Sowore
was moved from the Kuje prison to police custody on Tuesday because prison
officials were afraid he would ‘revolutionarise’ other inmates at the facility.
A Chief Magistrates’ Court in
Wuse Zone 2 area of Abuja on Tuesday adjourned till Friday, the ruling on the
bail application filed by the convener of #RevolutionNow protest and four
others.
The others are Juwon Sanyaolu, Peter Williams, Emmanuel
Bulus, and Damilare Adenola.
The accused are standing trial for alleged unlawful
participation in a protest on New Year’s eve.
The magistrate, Mrs Mabel Segun-Bello, directed that they
should be transferred from the Kuje Correctional Center, where they were
previously remanded, to the Force Criminal Investigation Department at Garki
Area 10, Abuja.
Commenting on the trial of Sowore and others, Jalingo said
the government harasses innocent citizens who demand a better Nigeria but
negotiates with Boko Haram members and bandits who slaughter scores of
Nigerians at will.
Jalingo was released last February after he was jailed for 179 days at the Afokang Prison in Calabar following an allegation of treason by the Cross River State Governor Benedict Ayade.
Jalingo said, “They arrested him (Sowore) and kept him longer than the statutory number of days and still could not bring up a charge. They are just harassing him just like they have been harassing all of us.
“The system is afraid of Sowore. If not so, why are they
harassing him? Boko Haram is there, bandits are there and they are negotiating
with them. These people are killing up and down but the government is
negotiating with them, they are granting them compensations and amnesty. Then,
you keep dragging a man that you simply don’t have anything to hold against
every day.
“All of us have been shouting, ‘Free Sowore, Free Sowore’,
but Sowore is not worried where he is.
“When they took him to Kuje, the authorities in Kuje
rejected him because they are afraid that he is going to revolutionarise other
inmates. So they protested, they didn’t want to admit him. Even when I was in
Afokang Prison in Calabar, it was the same thing because of the way the other
prisoners were coming to listen to me. Keeping Sowore in the prison will cause
more problems for them. That is why today, the court said they should keep him
in police custody.”
When asked whether there is any plan for mass action to
protest the detainment of Sowore, Jalingo said, “Let’s wait for what happens on
Friday. The court has said they should bring him back on Friday, so, we are
waiting. He is our leader and we are not going to keep quiet.”
“They should just leave him alone. Sowore is not the problem
of Nigeria, the problem of Nigeria is those locking him up,” he added.
Sowore, who was earlier declared a prisoner of conscience by
Amnesty International in 2019, was detained for several months by the Buhari
regime for allegedly calling for a revolution.
He was denied bail several times and even re-arrested inside
the Federal High Court. However, he was released after domestic and
international pressures in December 2019.
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