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CSOs Petition UN,AU To Help Secure Sowore’s Release
– Fifty CSO call for the release of Sahara reporter Publisher and activist,Omoyele Sowore
– The Civil Society organizations filed a petition to UN and AU to help secure Sowore’s release
– It is the height of impunity to continue to detain him even after a court of competent jurisdiction has granted him bail
Fifty civil society organisations have filed an appeal against Sowore’s case to the United Nations and the African Union to help secure the activist’s release.
Sowore was arrested by the Department of State Services(DSS) on August 3, 2019 for a protest tagged #RevolutionNow.
He was detained under the 2013 Terrorism Act but, a Federal High Court in Abuja on September 24, 2019 ordered the DSS to release him.
However, Sowore is still being detained as of Friday after the Court order.
The Programme Director of the Media Rights Agenda, Mr Ayode Longe, said: “it was anti-democratic to arrest the activist for merely exercising his constitutional right of assembly, association and expression.
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“It is the height of impunity to continue to detain him even after a court of competent jurisdiction has granted him bail. The DSS must immediately and unconditionally release Sowore,” he said.
Similarly, The Deputy Director, Socio Economic Rights & Accountability Project, Mr Olúwádàre Kóláwolé, said that Sowore’s case made a mockery of Nigeria’s criminal justice system, rule of law, freedom of expression and media freedom.
Also speaking, the Community Manager for sub-Saharan Africa, Global Voices, Mr Nwachukwu Egbunike, said, “ Sowore’s continued detention and the charges of treason affirm our position that this trial is merely a criminalisation of political dissent.”
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