THE Federal High Court in Abuja on Monday declared the arrest of activist and Sahara Reporters publisher, Omoyele Sowore, over his 2019 #RevolutionNow protest, as illegal.
Delivering judgement in the fundamental rights enforcement suit filed by Mr Sowore, the judge, Obiora Egwuato, ordered the State Security Service (SSS) to pay N1 million to the activist.
This came about three months after another judge of the Federal High Court in Abuja, Anwuli Chikere, ordered the SSS to pay N2 million to Mr Sowore over the unlawful seizure of his mobile phone at the point of his arrest in 2019.
Delivering judgement in the human rights suit filed by Mr Sowore, the judge, Mrs Chikere, on December 8, 2021, also ordered the SSS to immediately release the iPhone and a cash of N10,000 which were alleged to have been forcefully taken away from him without court warrant.
Monday’s decision came as another affirmation of court decisions that had validated the #RevolutionNow protest, and declared the arrest of others who participated in it as illegal, although the office of the Attorney-General of the Federation continues to prosecute him for organising the protest.
One of Sowore’s lawyers, Marshal Abubakar, who is of the law firm of a prominent human rights lawyer, Femi Falana, described Monday’s judgement as another victory recorded against the “notorious” SSS.
He said it was an affirmation of the rights of Sowore and other Nigerians “to protest, freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and right to movement.”
Sowore was sensationally arrested in a Gestapo manner by SSS operatives in Lagos on August 3, 2019, for planning to organise a protest tagged: “#RevolutionNow”.
It was the President Muhammadu Buhari administration’s first major clampdown on Sowore who had at the time become critical of the regime over its poor handling of the economy, insecurity, and other major issues of governance.
