Human Rights Activist and former Presidential Candidate, Omoyele Sowore, was reportedly assaulted and re-arrested by police officers outside the Kuje Magistrate Court shortly after being granted bail.
Today, Friday, a Magistrate’s Court in Kuje, Abuja, had granted bail to activist and publisher Omoyele Sowore; Nnamdi Kanu’s lawyer, Aloy Ejimakor; the IPOB leader’s brother, Prince Emmanuel Kanu; and 10 others.
The 13 defendants were each granted bail in the sum of ₦500,000, with two sureties in like amount.
They had been originally arrested and arraigned for allegedly inciting public disturbance and breaching the peace during the #FreeNnamdiKanuNow protest held in Abuja on Monday, October 20.
While Ejimakor, Emmanuel and the other 10 defendants were arrested during the protest and later remanded at the Kuje Correctional facility, Sowore was apprehended on October 23 at the premises of the Federal High Court in Abuja after attending Kanu’s terrorism trial to show solidarity.
Eyewitnesses said the incident happened moments after Magistrate Abubakar Umar Sai’id granted bail to Sowore and 13 others who had been arrested during the recent #FreeNnamdiKanuNow protest in Abuja.
While his legal team was finalising the bail process, police officers allegedly led by the Investigating Police Officer, CSP Ilyasu Barau, who heads the Anti-Vice Unit under the FCT Command’s DC-CID, attacked Sowore, punched him, and dragged him into a waiting van.
According to witnesses, the activist resisted as officers tried to take him away without explanation. “The IPO punched him, dragged him on the ground, and forced him into the van. They really manhandled him,” an eyewitness recounted.
Another observer claimed that when Sowore’s lawyers demanded to see the remand order, the officers refused to produce any document. “The police took Sowore away to Kuje Prison despite his bail, citing a secret remand order,” the source said.
Earlier in the day, Sowore and 13 others, including Nnamdi Kanu’s lawyer, Aloy Ejimakor, and his brother, Prince Emmanuel Kanu, had been granted bail after being arraigned on charges of unlawful assembly and disturbance of public peace.
The circumstances surrounding Sowore’s re-arrest have sparked outrage among observers and human rights advocates, who have condemned the police action as a violation of due process and judicial authority.
