Omoyele Sowore, a human rights activist and publisher of Sahara Reporters, an online newspaper, was arrested on Thursday, October 23, by the officials of the Federal Capital Territory Police Command.
WITHIN NIGERIA gathered that Sowore was arrested within the premises of the Federal High Court in Abuja, shortly after showing solidarity with the detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu.
Benjamin Hundeyin, the force spokesperson, while confirming the arrest, disclosed that the activist is currently in police custody and will be charged in court on Friday.
According to Hundeyin, Sowore was arrested for allegedly violating a court order that prohibits protests around the Three Arms Zone in Abuja.
In a strange development, Omoyele Sowore was re-arrested on Friday, October 24, by the Nigerian Police shortly after his court appearance at the Kuje Magistrate Court.
Recall that the court had granted bail to Sowore, Nnamdi Kanu’s brother, Prince Emmanuel Kanu, a former member of Kanu’s legal team, and ten others in the sum of N500,000 each, with two sureties residing in the Federal Capital Territory and possessing valid identification and three years of tax clearance.
According to reports, he is expected to be arraigned on Monday, October 27, on a fresh charge related to his claim that President Bola Tinubu is a criminal.
A check by WITHIN NIGERIA revealed that Sowore had been arrested more than 10 times by Nigerian authorities for offenses related to protests and harsh criticism against public officials, among others.
Here is a list of some of his arrests that were notable;
2019 ARREST
Omoyele Sowore, publisher and activist, was arrested on the 3rd of August, 2019, by operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS) over a call for revolution.
According to reports, DSS officials stormed Sowore’s apartment in the early hours of Saturday and picked up the convener of the planned Revolution Now protest against bad governance.
Peter Afunanya, the spokesperson of the DSS, while addressing reporters in Abuja, disclosed that Sowore was taken into custody after they received information that Sowore had been in touch with foreign actors to destabilize Nigeria.
He further assured foreign countries of their safety ahead of Monday’s revolution protest planned by Omoyele Sowore, who is in detention.
He insisted that Sowore crossed the red line after he called for a revolution over alleged bad governance, insecurity, and corruption, among others.
Afunaya, who described revolution as insurgency, revolt, insurrection, and forceful takeover of government, added that Nigeria is not a banana republic and cannot be made one by the likes of Sowore.
He emphasized that DSS will not allow self-centered and violence-inclined persons to take the law into their own hands.
“Though there is apprehension and anxiety among citizens already, we wish to assure friends of Nigeria, and other law-abiding citizens, that there will be no revolution of any kind come Monday, August 5, 2019.
A democratically elected government is in charge, and we cannot allow any person or group to foment chaos or fan the ember of revolution,” he said.
2021 ARREST
Omoyele Sowore and five other activists were arrested on December 31 by police officers for organizing an anti-government protest.
Femi Falana, a senior advocate and lawyer, accused police of severely beating Omoyele Sowore.He also demanded the immediate release of Sowore and others.
He added that he had been placed in a dangerous section of a notorious prison.
The police officers who arrested Sowore, who is also a journalist, “subjected him to severe beating and left him with bruises all over his body,” Falana told AFP.
“As if that was not enough, he has been locked up in the midst of armed robbery suspects at a notorious detention facility called ‘abattoir,'” the lawyer said.
The FCT police command arrested the five activists at 12:30 am on January 1 in a “swift response to a distress call received from some tensed residents” over “an unusual gathering and movement,” the police said.
The five suspects were arrested for “unlawfully gathering at very odd hours, thereby causing palpable tension amongst the residents of the Gudu and Lokogoma areas of the FCT,” regional police spokeswoman Mariam Yusuf told AFP.
2025 ARREST
Omoyele Sowore activist and the publisher of Sahara Reporters on Thursday, 7th of August was arrested by men of the Nigeria Police Force.
Sowore, who honored the invitation from the Nigeria Police Force Headquarters in Abuja at about noon with a travel bag, was taken into custody by the Force Intelligence Department (FID).
The activist who was detained on Thursday was transferred to an underground detention facility.
According to the report, a police team transferred Sowore from the FID to an undisclosed location around 6 am.
Recall that a police letter initially accused Sowore of “inciting disturbance,” but a new letter issued to his lawyer on Monday replaced the accusation with allegations of forgery and criminal defamation.
7 things you probably don’t know about Omoyele Sowore, human rights activist and publisher of Sahara Reporters:
He was born on February 16, 1971, in Ese-Odo, Ondo State, Nigeria
He attended the University of Lagos where he studied Geography
He obtained a Master’s degree in Public Administration from Columbia University
He served as the President of the University of Lagos Student Union Government from 1992 to 1994
He founded in 2006, the online news platform provides investigative reports on corruption, government mismanagement, and human rights abuses
He founded the African Action Congress (AAC) in 2018 and ran for President of Nigeria in the 2019 and 2023 general elections.
He is a Nigerian politician, human rights activist, citizen reporter, writer, lecturer, and pro-democracy campaigner
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