A federal high court in Abuja on
Friday granted a N100 million bail to Omoyele Sowore, convener of
#RevolutionNow Movement.
Sowore has been in custody of the
Department of State Services (DSS) since August 3 when he was arrested in
Lagos.
A court had earlier granted him
bail but the secret police refused to release him while he was arraigned on
September 30, alongside Olawale Bakare, his co-defendant, on a 7-count charge
of felony brought against him by the federal government.
At the court on Friday, Ijeoma
Ojukwu, the presiding judge, held that the prosecution failed to show good
reasons why the defendants should not be granted bail since the offences are
bailable.
The judge also granted a N50
million bail to Bakare. She restricted Sowore from speaking with journalists
and travelling outside Abuja.
The judge ordered Sowore to
produce two sureties in like sum, one who must deposit N50m to the court
pending the determination of the case.
She said all sureties must be
resident in Abuja, must show proof of tax clearance from 2016 to 2018 and must
deposit original documents of landed properties in Abuja.
Earlier, while opposing the bail
application, Hassan Liman, counsel to the federal government, urged the court
to dismiss the request for bail, saying the defendants have demonstrated the
likelihood of committing the same offences.
“The first defendant while being
taken away from the court on Monday was seen chanting revolution, it is time
for us to do it,” Liman said.
Juxtaposing Sowore’s case with
that of the case of Asari Dokubo who was denied bail by the supreme court ,
Liman said offences threatening national security “such as this” should be
handled with caution.
He also asked the court to take
judicial notice of Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the indigenous people of biafra
(IPOB), who jumped bail.
Femi Falana, counsel to the
defendants, prayed the court to allow bail on grounds that the defendants have
never been found guilty of committing any offence before.
He said the use of the word “revolution”
is not a criminal offense. Quoting the supreme court, he defined revolution as
“the overthrow of one class by the other”.
Falana further pointed out that
President Muhammadu Buhari also called for a revolution in 2003 and 2011
respectively after he lost the presidential election.
He argued that the first
defendant(Sowore) has never called for a violent protest.
Addressing the second charge
which bothered on insulting the president, the senior advocate of Nigeria (SAN)
said “under the current constitutional dispensation, no public officer in
Nigeria is permitted to use the machinery of the state to settle scores with
his opponent”
He said the constitution
guarantees freedom of speech, which includes freedom to criticise and that
government officials should be open to criticism.
Responding to the case of Dokubo
raised by the opposition, Falana said Dokubo was not granted bail because he
admitted to blowing pipes in the Niger Delta.
He assured the court that his
clients would not cause any trouble if they are granted bail.
The case has been adjourned till
November 6, 2019.
This is soooooo funnyyyy.. The judge should not have granted him bail, where is he supposed to get 100m from? hahahaha.. Sowore don go do pass himselfand the FG is only making him more popular
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