Justice Emeka Nwite of a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, on Monday, struck out the treasonable felony charge the Federal Government filed against the convener of the #RevolutionNow protest, Omoyele Sowore and Olawole Adebayo Bakare (aka Mandate).
Justice Emeka Nwite struck out the charge, in a ruling after A.R. Tahir, counsel to the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice withdrew the charge.
Justice Nwite also ordered the Department of State Service (DSS) to immediately release three phones and the sum of N10,000 seized from Sowore during his arrest.
The judge also ordered the DSS to release a phone belonging to Bakare and the sum of N1,500 confiscated from him during his arrest.
Justice Nwite equally ordered that Sowore’s international passport be released.
The orders followed an application to that effect by lawyer to Sowore and Bakare, Mr Femi Falana (SAN).
The AGF and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi had, last week filed a notice of discontinuance of the treasonable felony charge against Sowore and his co-defendant, who were earlier arraigned before Justice Ijeoma Ojukwu in 2019 before the matter was reassigned to Justice Nwite.
The Notice of Discontinuance, dated February 15, 2023, said, “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 Fagbemi, SAN, the Honourable Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice tend to discontinue Charge No: FHC/ABJ/CR/235/2019″, between the Federal Republic of Nigeria and Omoyele Sowore, Olawale Adebayo Bakare (aka Mandate)”.
It be recalled that the Federal Government, in 2019 slammed a seven-count criminal charge, bordering on treasonable felony and money laundering against Sowore, who is also the publisher of SaharaReporters online news medium.
Also charged along the Sowore, a presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC) party in the seven-count charge is Olawale Bakare, also known as Mandate.
The charge specifically accused Sowore and his co-defendant of conspiracy to commit treasonable felony in breach of section 516 of the Criminal Code Act by allegedly staging “a revolution campaign on September 5, 2019 aimed at removing the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria”.
The prosecution also accused them of committing the actual offence of treasonable felony in breach of section, 4(1)(c) of the Criminal Code Act, by using the platform of Coalition for Revolution, in August 2019 in Abuja, Lagos, and other parts of Nigeria, to stage the #RevolutionNow protest allegedly aimed at removing the President.
Sowore was further accused of cybercrime offences in violation of section 24(1)(b) of the Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention) Act, by “knowingly sending messages by means of press interview granted on Arise Television network which you knew to be false for the purpose of causing insult, enmity, hatred and ill-will on the person of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria”.
It also accused Sowore of money laundering offences in breach of section 15(1) of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act, 2011.
Sowore was arrested in the early hours of Saturday, August 3, 2019, in a hotel in Lagos by men of the DSS on account of the #RevolutionNow protest that he had spearheaded.
