A human rights activist and publisher of Sahara Reporters, Omoyele Sowore, on Tuesday formally declared his intention to run for president.
As earlier promised, Mr Sowore joined the growing list of aspirants jostling to succeed President Muhammadu Buhari in 2023.
This will be the second time the activist will be contesting for the position. He was the candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC) in the 2019 presidential election.
Without any form of written or verbal address, Mr Sowore, in the early hours of Tuesday, shared a banner with the caption “SOWORE FOR PRESIDENT.”
Although Mr Sowore did not give much details about his ambition on the shared banner, the former AAC presidential candidate had on Thursday, after his release from police detention in Abuja, promised not to back down.
He said the recent petition filed against him by a former member of the House of Representatives, Ned Nwoko, and his subsequent detention was sponsored by the APC-led government to stop his declaration.
“I knew this is what’s going to happen and I’m not surprised that that’s what they did. But when we got here, I made it clear to everybody, all of the police officers involved, that I can’t write any statement and I won’t accept any kind of bail condition attached to my release,” he had said.
“They took me to their detention. When they were tired; they came and called to tell me that I should be going home. So I’m heading home now. No reason to worry, we know why this is happening. They are afraid of the future. They are afraid Sowore will declare very soon and become the president of Nigeria; you can’t stop me,” the activist was quoted to have said by his newspaper after his release on Thursday.
In his 2019 attempt, Mr Sowore garnered 33,953 votes to place the fifth position ahead of other new entrants like Fela Durotoye of the Alliance for New Nigeria (ANN), Kingsley Moghalu of the Young Democratic Party (YPP).
He was arrested by the State Security Service (SSS) in August 2019 after the election for alleged treason after leading a nationwide protest tagged RevolutionNow.
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Since then, he has been in and out of court.
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