Chief Sunny Onuesoke, a chieftain of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has appealed to prominent Nigerian activists in persons of Professor Wole Soyinka and Femi Falana, Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) among others, to add their voices in demanding for the unconditional release of human rights activist and publisher of Sahara Reporters, Omoyele Sowore.
Sowore, an activist and publisher of online news platform SaharaReporters, was arrested at his apartment in the early hours of Saturday by men suspected to be personnel of Department of State Security Service (DSS).
While addressing airport correspondents at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Ikeja, Onuesoke said both Soyinka and Falana are globally recognised in their efforts against the gagging of the struggle of true and freedom of democracy said “this is the time for both notable Nigerians to speak out against the incarceration of one of their own by the DSS if we want to achieve true democracy in Nigeria”.
Wondering what offence Sowore would have committed to warrant his arrest, the former Governorship aspirant reminded those behind his arrest that the incumbent president once participated in a protest, as his legitimate right in the aftermath 2007 general elections.
“Then no one sends security agents after him,” he recalled.
Calling for the immediate release of Sowore, the PDP Chieftain pointed out that the alleged repressive action of the government is partially responsible why many Nigerians show no interest in electioneering process of the country in the last general election, stressing that the percentage of Nigerians that participated or voted in the last general elections says it all.
If calling for a revolution is treasonable, at least 70% of Nigerians should be in jail. They have called for it at one point or the other, including those in government now and when they were out of government. I have read about all sorts of people trying to justify his arrest. But you cannot arrest someone calling for a protest in the anticipation that he will commit a crime.
“If things continue this way, Nigeria might be going from life support to the mortuary. Why is this kind of force not deployed against the rampaging cattle herders?” Onuesoke enquired.
