VIDEO: Why Sahara Reporters Founder, Omoyele Sowore Was Arrested

The National Legal Adviser at African Action Congress, Mr. Inibehe Effiong, has said that human rights activist and publisher of Sahara Reporters, Omoyele Sowore, was arrested because he was planning a protest.

Sowore was AAC’s presidential candidate in the February 2019 General Elections.

Effiong condemned the arrest of his client’s presidential candidate.

Men of the Department of State Services had stormed Sowore’s Lagos home in the early hours of Saturday, in what observers believe was an attempt to frustrate the revolutionary protests he had scheduled for Monday, August 5, across the nation.

Effiong, the Principal Counsel/Head of Chambers at Inibehe Effiong Chambers, in a series of Facebook posts, said that his client was arrested because of his ‘Revolution Now’ movement which seeks good governance.

He said it was unfortunate that the DSS, which ought to be tackling other security challenges, was going after “innocent citizens.”

He wrote, “Mr. Omoyele Sowore is currently in the custody of the SSS. His phones have been confiscated. This is a panic response from a decayed regime that is so scared of its own shadow.

“Buhari’s despotism is now in full force. Nigerians are now preoccupied with the shenanigans of a morally bankrupt, economically backward and politically inept administration.

“The SSS (sic), which is supposed to be actively involved in curtailing insecurity across Nigeria, has been turned into a tool of intimidation for a corrupt, clueless and incompetent government.

“Let it be known that this irresponsible and highly reckless action will not deter conscientious and enlightened Nigerians from fighting for a better country. The #RevolutionNow Movement has come to stay and no dictator can stop it.

In yet another Facebook post, Mr. Effiong wrote:

“General Buhari lost election in 2003 and led a massive protest. He lost in 2007 and didn’t go to sleep. When he lost again in 2011, his supporters went on riot, killing people and burning public and private properties.

“Sowore, a respected activist of decades, called for nationwide protests tagged #RevolutionNow, Buharists are saying it’s because he lost election.

“Sickening.

“I have said it before, if we depend on Buhari and his supporters to safeguard our “democracy” we will wake up one day to realise that Nigeria is totally gone.”

Sowore, who ran for president on the platform of the African Action Congress, had taken to the streets of Lagos last week, putting up posters and calling on youths to rise against bad governance.

He had lamented that Nigerian youths were too docile and had allowed bad leaders to rule without being challenged.

The Sahara Reporters publisher, who is a former Student Union President of the University of Lagos, has been arrested by government agencies in the past.

During the regime of the maximum ruler, Gen. Sani Abacha, he was similarly detained and also brutalised for his activism.

Watch the video here:

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