Lagos, 11 December, 2019 / 12:20 am (ACI Africa).
The re-arresting of Nigerian journalist, human rights activist and former presidential candidate, Omoyele Sowore within court premises by the Department of State Security (DSS) hours after he had been freed on bail has angered a section of Nigerians including a Catholic Bishop in the West African Country who has condemned the incident terming it “a grave danger for democracy” in Africa’s most populous nation.
“The manner in which Sowore was whisked away by the DSS operatives within the hallowed Temple of Justice and before a sitting Justice portends a grave danger for democracy in Nigeria,” the Archbishop of Lagos, Alfred Adewale Martins said in a statement seen by ACI Africa, December 9.
“I watched the scene of the arrest of Sowore on a video clip circulating on the social media with utter disbelief,” the Archbishop said and added, “I could not believe that we have descended so low that security officials would desecrate the temple of justice in the way they did: arresting a person in the very presence of the Judge who ordered his release in the same court in which the order was given.”
The Nigerian Prelate termed the Friday, December 6 episode “despicable and a disgrace to a country that prides itself as having enjoyed 20 uninterrupted years of democratic rule.”
The publisher of the U.S.-based Sahara Reporters Newsite, Sowore who unsuccessfully ran for president in Nigeria’s February general elections as leader of the African Action Congress (AAC) was detained in August following his call for nationwide demonstrations against President Muhammadu Buhari and charged with treason as well as money laundering, charges he denies.
