An advocacy group, Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), on Thursday protested the prolonged detention of a former presidential candidate in the 2019 general elections, and leader of the RevolutionNow Movement, Omodele Sowore, by the Department of Security Service (DSS). The group condemned the Federal High Court of Nigeria over the continuous detention of Citizen Omoyele Sowore, protesting that the Courts may have succumbed to the avalanche of psychological warfare using the anti-graft bodies and security forces by the federal government to diminish and cripple the constitutional independence of the judiciary.
HURIWA argued that “there is no justifiable reason for the untold psychological and physical torture being faced by the publisher of Saharareporters.com, Omoyele SOWORE, only because he is alleged to have masterminded a peaceful and constructive civil rights action they decided to call REVOLUTIONNOW.”
HURIWA further protested that “the detention of the Sowore and other protesters arrested across the country in a brutal crackdown by armed police operatives is a grave set back which has adversely affected the enjoyment of the constitutionally guaranteed freedoms enshrined in various international and local statutes.”
The group also condemned the court for continuously denying to grant bail to Sowore, noting that granting of bail is at the discretion of the judges and not subject to the whims and caprices of a fast emerging dictatorship in Nigeria.
HURIWA recalled that in early August,. Sowore, presidential candidate of African Action Congress (AAC), was arrested by the DSS in a commando styled operation staged in the early hours of the night.
HURIWA observed that Sowore had declared 5th August for the commencement of revolution protest tagged ‘ Days of Rage’ across the country to demand a better Nigeria but he was arrested on August 3rd and has remained in detention of the DSS since then.