Omoyele Sowore treason charges
Omoyele 'Yele' Sowore, a presidential candidate in the Nigerian February 2019 elections was arrested by the Department of State Services (DSS) on August 3, 2019, in Lagos, Nigeria, after he called for nation-wide protests as part of the #RevolutionNow movement he started. Background. The Coalition for Revolution (CORE), a political movement led by Sowore called for a nation-wide protest march themed Revolution Now, to commence from August 5, 2019. In July, 2019, CORE issued its 5-core demands for Revolution Now, being: Revolution Now. On July, 2019, Sowore via his micro-blogging handle announced  the hashtag #RevolutionNow while communicating the commencement date via a graphic post. This was to press the 5-point demands of CORE and garner widespread attention. Arrest. Nigeria's Department of State Services (DSS) arrested Sowore at his Lagos residence on August 3, 2019 by 1.25 am. His online news platform Sahara Reporters first broke the story before other local news platforms followed suit. A DSS petition to keep Sowore in custody for 45 days pending investigations was granted on August 8 by an Abuja court, headed by Justice Taiwo Taiwo. Trial. Sowore was charged to court for treasonable and  money laundering felonies after being in detention for 45 days. The breakdown of the Nigeria State charges against him were: Federal government fined. For frequent calls for adjournment of the case against Sowore, a Federal High Court in Abuja fined the Federal Government the sum of NGN 200,000. The Federal Government confirmed the fine's payment at a resumed hearing. International protests. On August 23, 48 press freedom advocates petitioned the United Nations (UN) and the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, to urgently intervene by securing Sowere's immediate release. They also described Sowore's arrest as a  gross violation of his human rights and a threat to press freedom in Nigeria, and by September 26, resent an update to their appeal for intervention. Also in September, another group of 72 writers, academics and activists, which includes Edmund Phelps, Anya Schiffrin, Ann Cooper, Sheila Coronel, Okey Ndibe and Bruce Shapiro sent an open letter to demand that Nigeria drop charges against Omoyele Sowore. Ope Sowore, his wife led a group of protesters to the UN Plaza building where President Buhari was in attendance and also led supporters to stage a rally outside the office of U.S senator Bob  Menedez to demand her husband's release. Release. Omoyele Sowore's was finally released on December 24, 2019 on bail. His release came to be after the Nigeria's Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Mr. Abubakar Malami (SAN), said in a statement on Tuesday that he had issued a directive to the DSS to release him and others. This was after the Attorney General took over the prosecution of all charges against Sowore from the DSS after issuing a letter to intent on December 11, 2019 to the Director General of the DSS directing them  to forward all the case files to the AGF's office. In the same vein, Sowore's legal team called for a total withdraw of charges pending any other criminal charges against his client, insisting that there was no evidence to get the ‘Revolution Now’ protests convener convicted on present charges. Legal team. Senior lawyers (>25 years of practice) Junior lawyers