Years after court declared action illegal, FG drops case against Sowore, Bakare over #RevolutionNow protest

The Federal Government has stopped the trial of media owner, and activist, Omoyele Sowore and his co-defendant, Olawale Bakare (also known as Mandate).

The decision to stop the trial was communicated to the Federal High Court in Abuja through a notice of discontinuance, dated February 14, but filed today by the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi (SAN).

The notice reads: “By virtue of the power conferred on me under Section 174 (1) (c} of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 as amended, Section 107 (1) of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act 2015 and all other powers enabling me in that behalf, I Lateef Olasunkanmi Fagbemi, SAN intend to discontinue charge No: FHC/ABJ/CR/235/2019.”

Recall that Sowore and Bakare were arraigned in August 2019 before the Federal High Court in Abuja following his protest rally in Abuja tagged: “Revolution Now.”

However, the Federal High Court in Abuja declared the 2019 arrest of Omoyele Sowore, an activist, as illegal.

READ ALSO:Sowore demands Akeredolu’s resignation, charges Ondo Assembly to present governor’s letter

The court also declared that the clampdown on the #RevolutionNow protests in 2019 was unconstitutional.

In May 2020, a Federal High court in Lagos awarded N1 million as damages against the federal government for disrupting the #RevolutionNow protest of August 5, 2019, after Olukoya Ogungbeje, a lawyer, instituted the suit against the government.

Maureen Onyetenu, the judge, had described the disruption of the protest by the police as “illegal, oppressive, undemocratic and unconstitutional”.

She also condemned “the mass arrest, harassment, tear-gassing, and clamping into detention” of the protesters.

In December 2021, Anwuli Chiekere, judge of an Abuja federal high court, ordered the DSS to pay the sum of N2 million as general damages to Sowore over the unlawful seizure of his phone in 2019.

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