Court Grants Sowore, Others Bail
A Magistrate’s Court sitting in Kuje, Abuja, has admitted human rights activist and publisher of SaharaReporters, Omoyele Sowore, to bail, together with several other individuals arrested during the #FreeNnamdiKanuNow protest in the Federal Capital Territory.
Among those granted bail are Aloy Ejimakor, counsel to the detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu; Kanu’s brother, Prince Emmanuel Kanu; and eleven other defendants.
The matter came up before Magistrate Abubakar Umar Sai’I’d, who, on Friday, ordered their release on bail following arraignment on charges of unlawful assembly and disturbance of public peace.
In his ruling, the magistrate fixed bail at ₦500,000 for each defendant, conditional upon: present a verified National Identification Number (NIN), submission of three years’ tax clearance certificates, and deposit their international passports with the court.
Sowore had been arrested on Thursday by operatives of the Nigeria Police Force shortly after leaving the Federal High Court in Abuja. His arrest, widely circulated in online videos, has since attracted strong condemnation from civil society organisations and human rights advocates, who described the action as a further attempt to stifle dissent and curtail civic activism.
