Court threatens to dismiss Sowore’s alleged treasonable felony case

Justice Emeka Nwite of the Federal High Court, Abuja on Wednesday, threatened to strike out the case of African Action Congress (AAC) presidential candidate, Omoyele Sowore if the prosecution fails to put its house in order.

The Federal Government first arraigned Sowore and Olawale Balogun on a seven-count charge of treasonable felony, fraud, and cyber-stalking in September 2019.

The charges were later pruned down to two when the defendants were re-arraigned in 2020.

The defendants were accused of staging a revolution campaign tagged: #RevolutionNow in August 2019 aimed at removing former President Muhammadu Buhari from office.

When the matter was called at Wednesday’s proceeding, only Sowore was present in court.

The prosecution counsel, Mariam Okorie, told the court that on the last adjourned date, the court had ordered that the hearing notice be served on Bakare.

Okorie, however, said that she was not aware if Bakare had been served with the notice.

The registrar of the court, thereafter, confirmed that Bakare had not been served with the notice.

READ ALSO: Sowore reveals campaign expenses, urges other presidential candidates to do same

Counsel to Sowore, Mr. Marshall Abubakar told the court that the prosecution was trying to frustrate his client with its inability to serve the second defendant the hearing notice for him to appear in court.

Abubakar said he had written a letter to the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), and asked that the charge be severed so that his client could take his plea and stand the trial alone.

The counsel said: “My lord, this is the fifth year since this charge was filed, the defendant has been denied access to his family since then because he has not been allowed to travel outside the country where his family lives.

“You cannot continually and perpetually hold the man under suspicion that he committed a crime and so we will apply that this case be struck out until the prosecution is ready to prosecute it.”

In his ruling, Justice Nwite told the prosecution to serve Bakare with the notice before the next hearing date.

He threatened to strike the case if the prosecution failed to comply with the order at the next hearing date.

“If you are not ready to go on with the matter, I am sounding this as the last warning that at the next adjourned date, I will strike out the matter even if heaven falls let it fall,” the judge said.

He adjourned the matter till December 5.

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