Falana counters Malami, says he can release Sowore from illegal detention

Lagos lawyer, Mr. Femi Falana (SAN), on Tuesday countered the position of the Attorney General of the Federation, Mr. Abubakar Malami that he cannot order the Department of State Services (DSS) to release the co-convener of #RevolutionNow protests, Omoyele Sowore.

Malami had in a statement on Monday insisted that he does not have the powers to unilaterally order for Sowore’s release after he was forcibly rearested inside a court in Abuja, after been released on bail.

Falana, who is the lead counsel to Sowore and his co-defendant, Olawale Bakare, in a statement on Tuesday, insisted that having taken over the prosecution of his clients, Malami has a duty to ask the DSS to release Sowore from its “illegal” custody.

He said: “Since Mr Malami has taken over the case of FRN v Sowore & Another, he is deemed to possess ‘the constitutional powers in full and the responsibility for any decision thereupon rests solely on him.’

“Therefore, he cannot, like Pontius Pilate, wash off his hands with respect to the illegal detention of Sowore by the State Security Service. Furthermore, since Section 287 of the Constitution has imposed a legal obligation on all authorities and persons in Nigeria to comply with the decisions of all competent courts, the Attorney General of the Federation, Mr Malami, is duty bound to direct the State Security Services to release Sowore on bail in compliance with the valid and subsisting order of the federal high court.”

Read also: Kalu’s bail application not tenable – EFCC

Sowore and Bakare are standing trial for treasonable felony. They were first arrested in August but were granted bail by a Federal High Court in Abuja.

Though the DSS refused to comply initially with the order for their release after meeting the bail conditions, Sowore was forcibly rearested barely 24 hours after his brief stint with freedom.

Operatives of the DSS had violently rearrested Sowore at the Federal High Court in Abuja on December 6, barely 24 hours of releasing him and Bakare from the custody that lasted over four months.

They were first arrested in August and were later in September charged with treasonable felony among other offences, for calling for the‘#RevolutionNow’ protests, which the Federal Government interpreted to be a call for the overthrow of the government of President Muhammadu Buhari (retd.)

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