The court of appeal sitting in Abuja has granted an
application by Omoyele Sowore, convener of the #RevolutionNow movement, to file
a notice of appeal against his bail terms.
The Department of State Services (DSS) had arrested Sowore
in Lagos on August 3, 2019, and was later moved to Abuja.
The federal government had charged Sowore with treasonable
felony, “insulting” President Muhammadu Buhari and money laundering.
The court had granted Sowore N100 million bail with two
sureties who must be residents in Abuja and have landed properties within the
federal capital territory (FCT).
The court had held that the sureties must deposit original
documents of those properties.
The judge also ordered that one of the sureties must deposit
N50 million with the court pending the determination of the case
While barring Sowore from travelling outside Abuja, the
judge ordered him to deposit his passport with the court.
Subsequently, Ijeoma Ojukwu, the trial judge, set aside the
previous order on Sowore’s surety depositing N50m, holding that the surety
could deposit N30 million.
She also reduced the bail sum of Olawale Bakare, Sowore’s
co-defendant, to N30m instead of the initial N50m.
But she refused to alter all the other conditions for bail.
Femi Falana, Sowore’s counsel, had approached the court
seeking an alteration of the previous bail conditions which he said were
stringent, and thus, could not be met.
In the sitting on Tuesday, Marshall Abubakar, Sowore’s
lawyer, urged the court to grant an order “extending the time within which the
applicant/appellant may file his notice of appeal against the ruling of the
Federal High Court, Abuja Judicial Division in CHARGE NO. FHC/ABJ/CR/235/2019,
between FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA V OMOYELE SOWORE and 1 other delivered by
His Lordship, Honourable Justice ljeoma Ojukwu, on the 21st day of October
2019, the time within which to file same having elapsed”.
He also asked to withdraw prayer 2 which is an order
“deeming the applicant’s/appellant’s Notice of Appeal filed against the ruling
of the Federal High Court, Abuja Judicial Division in CHARGE NO.
FHC/ABJ/CR/235/2019, between FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA V OMOYELE SOWORE &
1 other delivered by His Lordship, Honourable Justice ljeoma Ojukwu, on the
21st day of October 2019, a proposed copy attached herewith as “Exhibit A” and
filed separately at the Registry of this Honourable Court as a separate
process, as having been properly filed and served on the respondent”.
Moore Adumein, the judge, granted the applicant’s motion “to
file a notice of appeal at the registry of the federal high court Abuja 14 days
from today” and struck out the second request.
Advertise on NigerianEye.com to reach thousands of our daily users
No comments
Post a Comment
Kindly drop a comment below.
(Comments are moderated. Clean comments will be approved immediately)
Advert Enquires - Reach out to us at NigerianEye@gmail.com