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| Omoyele Sowore |
The family of the convener of #RevolutionNow protest, Omoyele Sowore, on Sunday urged Nigerian masses to rally round in ensuring the unconditional release of the human rights activist and politician.
Sowore, an indigene of Kiribo, in the riverine Ese-Odo local government area of Ondo state and presidential candidate of African Action Congress(AAC) was arrested by the Department of Security Services(DSS) on August 3, for treason allegation after calling for a revolution.
After some months in custody, the Federal High Court recently varied the bail conditions granted him and his co-defendant,Olawale Bakare.
However, his lawyer,Femi Falana(SAN) in a report said they were making efforts to meet the bail conditions.
But Sowore’s family through his younger brother,Akin Sowore spoke to ‘The Nation’ on phone, saying the bail conditions were too harsh, stressing that they were not comfortable with them.
According to him ” Some notable personalities who should have come out to be sureties for Sowore’s to facilitate his release are being witch-hunted by anti-graft agencies on the order from above.
“They are being scared of probe while some of his known friends and associates have backed out. We are not casting blames on anybody, but Sowore’s struggle is not sectional, he believes in one united Nigeria emancipation, people are afraid of the oppressive nature of the government of the day.
” The fact remains that his political party, AAC is not strong enough, it has not been in government at any time ,people were being scared to come out as his guarantors,we now rely on the ‘party of the entire masses of Nigeria’ to bail us out of the present tyranny.
He said at their own level, the family was mobilising support and equally sought the assistance of well-meaning Nigerians and the whole people to rise up to this challenge.
The young Sowore emphasised that the bail conditions must not be too excessive under the administration of criminal justice, stressing that until the court proved otherwise,he can not be deprived of that right.
According to him,democracy in Nigeria is tyrannical,noting that as politicians there is no law promulgate against proclamation of revolution.
His words” revolution is agitation from the old order to the new one to enable government sit tight, with no weapons attached.
Sowore, the former chairman of Ese-odo local government particularly expressed concern over his brother’s restriction to travel out of Abuja,stressing that they should allow him to see his wife and children in the United States.
Besides, he said they should grant him bail condition that would give him the opportunity to resume his work as a teacher in Colombia University while standing trial.
He emphasised that the publisher of ‘Sahara reporters’ has no criminal records and therefore would not jump bail.
Justice Ijeoma Ojukwu of the Federal High Court had granted the order in a ruling on the application for bail variation by the duo charged with treasonable felony among others.
She waived the earlier requirements that one of Sowore’s sureties should deposit N50m as security and reduced the amount attached to Bakare’s bail from N50m to N20m.
The court on October 4 granted them bail on certain conditions, which the applicants considered stringent and decided to approach the court for variation.
Justice Ojukwu, however, refused to vary all other bail conditions
She adjourned the case to November 6 and 7 for the commencement of trial.
