By Ikugbadi Oluwasegun
Omoyele Sowore has been rearrested again after a Magistrate court in Kuje granted him bail with 12 others for participating in #FreeNnamdiKanuNow protest.
This was disclosed in a statement issued on Friday by Tope Temokun, Sowore’s lawyers which stated, “Today, within the hallowed precincts of justice, the courtroom, a scene most shocking and shameful unfolded before our very eyes.
After the court had freely and honorably granted bail to human rights defender Omoyele Sowore on liberal terms, a detachment of police officers, led by CSP Iliyasu, OC Anti Vice, State Command CID, invaded the court premises in a display of raw impunity and disdain for the rule of law. They descended violently upon Omoyele Sowore and those present and, in the full glare of the public, abducted Sowore and whisked him away.
In the course of standing up against this brazen illegality, I and others were physically assaulted; I sustained injuries and my bib was blood-stained in the chaos that ensued. The officers, in a most unruly and undisciplined manner, rough-handled Sowore away and whisked him away.
Let it be known that Sowore was not taken to prison, for any legal justification. Instead, the police spirited him away to an unknown destination, a clear and direct affront to the authority of the court, a mockery of the rule of law, and a violation of the fundamental rights of a citizen.
The judiciary is the last hope of the common man. The magistrate displayed courage despite stiff opposition from the police to frustrate bail. That was what irked them. What we saw after was not law or anything close to legality, its police and executive brigandage.
“Today marks a dark and painful moment for justice and democracy in Nigeria. Yet, it is also a moment of reckoning, a call to conscience.
To our fellow countrymen who once fell for the propaganda of “enforcing court orders, let this incident serve as an awakening. The government and it’s enforcers are not after enforcing or obedience to court order but just a plan to a sinister end.
“We call upon the Attorney General of the Federation, the National Human Rights Commission, and indeed all well-meaning Nigerians and lovers of justice to rise in unison and condemn this reckless desecration of our judicial institution.
We demand deferrence to the order of court granting bail.”
