The Federal High Court, Abuja, has fixed Dec. 23, to rule on a suit filed by Omoyele Sowore, Convener, #RevolutionNow, to demand unconditionally release from the Department of State Services’ (DSS) detention.
Sowore, in a motion ex-parte number: FHC/ABJ/CS/1409/19, filed by his lawyer, Femi Falana, SAN, before Justice Inyang Ekwo, demanded unconditional release in pursuance of the release order made by Justice Ijeoma Ojukwu on Nov. 6.
The operatives of the DSS had rearrested Sowore shortly after a court proceeding at the Federal High Court in Abuja on Dec. 6, barely 24 hours of releasing him and his co-defendant, Olawale Bakare, from custody.
Justice Ojukwu had fixed Feb. 11, 2020, as next adjourned date.
Abubakar Malami, SAN, the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, had, on Dec. 13, announced his take over of the prosecution of Sowore in the charge of treasonable felony levied against him.
While Sowore is the applicant in the suit, the Director-General of State Security Service and the AGF are 1st and 2nd respondents respectively.
However, Marshal Abubakar, who represented Falana, on Tuesday, sought “an order for the production of the applicant for unconditional release in pursuance of the release order made by this Honourable Court on the 6th November 2019.
“ANY OTHER ORDER (S) this Honourable Court may deem fit to make in the circumstance (s) of this case.”
Abubakar said the continued detention of the applicant regardless of the release order made by the court on Nov. 6 was “unlawful, unconstitutional, null and void.”
He said such action violated “his fundamental right to personal liberty guaranteed by Section 35 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended and Article 6 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (Ratification and Enforcement) Act (CAP A10) Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004.”
He reminded that Sowore was arrested in Lagos on the Aug. 2 without a warrant of arrest and was detained from the said date till Aug. 7 without a court order in violation of his fundamental right to personal liberty guaranteed by the constitution.
