Finally, FG withdraws treasonable felony charge against Sowore

The Federal Government has applied to withdraw the treasonable felony charge that the former President Muhammadu Buhari-led government filed against a civil rights activist and convener of the RevolutionNow protest, Mr. Omoyele Sowore, in 2019.

 

The Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Prince Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, in a letter dated February 14, which he wrote to the Abuja Division of the Federal High Court, applied for the termination of further proceedings in the matter.

 

Sowore, who was the presidential candidate of African Action Congress, AAC, in the last general election and the publisher of an online news outlet, Sahara Reporters, was arrested and arraigned before the court after he called for a nationwide protest against perceived maladministration by the Buhari-led government.

 

He was docked alongside his associate, Olawale Bakare (aka Mandate).

 

However, despite the arrest of the defendants, the protest held in various parts of the country on August 5, 2019, with security operatives clamping down on some of the participants.

 

The defendants were specifically accused of committing treasonable felony, conspiracy, money laundering, cyber-stalking and insulting President Buhari.

 

FG alleged that the defendants and others at large, had while under the eagis of Coalition for Revolution (CORE), sometimes in August 2019, in Abuja, Lagos and other parts of Nigeria, conspired amongst themselves to stage a revolution campaign on 5th day of August 2019 tagged #RevolutionNow, aimed at removing the President and Commander –in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria during his term of office otherwise than by constitutional means.

 

However, both Sowore and Bakare pleaded not guilty to the charge, even as trial Justice Ijeoma Ojukwu ordered their release on bail, a judicial directive the Department of State Services, DSS, temporarily obeyed for about 12 hours after they had spent over 124 days in detention.

 

The agency re-arrested Sowore at the premises of the court, in a manner that drew flaks to it from both within and outside the country.

 

In the wake of the public outcry that trailed the action of the DSS, the immediate past AGF, Mr. Abubakar Malami, SAN, directed the security agency to hands-off the matter and transfer the case-file to his office for review.

 

Subsequently, Malami, on December 24, 2019, ordered Sowore’s release after he had spent about five months in the custody of the DSS.

 

The Abuja Division of the Court of Appeal later described as “excessive”, the bail condition that restricted Sowore from travelling out of Abuja.

 

The appellate court held that the defendant, having surrendered his international passport to the trial court, was at liberty to enjoy the freedom of movement that was guaranteed to him under the 1999 Constitution, as amended.

 

It, however, ordered him not to travel outside the country without the permission of the trial court.

 

Meanwhile, about five years after the charge was filed against the defendants, no meaningful headway was made in the matter by the prosecution.

 

The AGF, Fagbemi, SAN, having reviewed the case, invoked his statutory powers and withdrew it.

 

The notice of discontinuance he wrote to the court, a copy of which Vanguard sighted on Thursday, read: “By virtue of the power conferred on me under section 174(1) (c ) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999, as amended, section 107(1) of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, 2015, and all other powers enabling me in that behalf.

 

“I, Lateef Olasunkanmi Fagbemi, SAN, intend to discontinue Charge No. FHC/ABJ/CR/235/2019.”

 

 

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