RevolutionNow: HURIWA Flays 45-Day Court Order For Sowore’s Detention

By Ayodele Oluwafemi

The Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria, HURIWA, on Thursday condemned the ruling of Federal High Court sitting in Abuja granting the Department of State Services, DSS, permission to detain Omoyele Sowore for another 45 days

Reacting to the ruling, HURIWA, in a statement, by its National Coordinator, Emmanuel Onwubiko condemned the judgement, arguing that the Federal Government’s decision to obtain an exparte order against Sowore’s detention anchored on Anti-terrorism Act was the height of abuse of power and executive recklessness.

The group said that the judge should have used his discretionary powers to grant Sowore bail considering that he moved a non-violent revolution against bad governance.

Part of the statement reads that: “The action of the federal government to even institute the charge against Mr. Sowore only for planning to call for a nationwide civil protests devoid of violence whereas the same government is actively dialoguing with armed bandits in Zamfara and has on many occasions freed arrested hardened terrorists of the Boko Haram terror networks.”

“Are we no longer living under a constitutional democracy? Why keep a citizen for more than a month when the constitution recognizes that he is innocent until proven guilty?

“We are shocked at the rate of institutionalization of injustice and unfairness by president Buhari who on one hand has authorized dialogue with armed bandits and terrorists who have killed over 27,000 Nigerians whereas he has instructed the Department of State Services (DSS) working under him to file charges of terrorism against a blogger and an activist Mr. Omoyele Sowore who is alleged to have expressed the determination of his platform named “Revolution Now” to stage a nation-wide civil protests to agitate for fundamental changes in the state of insecurity in Nigeria.

“By the way, why should the court or any government agency such as DSS hide under some nebulous provisions of a statute to subject a citizen to the denial of his fundamental freedoms of movement and liberty even when the constitution says he is innocent until the court determines otherwise?

“Why arrest a citizen if you as an agency of government have yet to wrap up your investigations? Who pays for the denial of his freedoms if the investigation turns up constructively positive in the favour of the man whose civil liberty is being caged courtesy of a misapplication of the law?”

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