The Federal Government on Monday arraigned the convener of #RevolutionNow protest, Mr Omoyele Sowore, and his co-defendant, Olawale Bakare, on seven counts of treasonable felony, cybercrimes and money laundering.
They both pleaded not guilty to the charges read to them when the operatives of the Department of State Services produced them before Justice Ijeoma Ojukwu of the Federal High Court in Abuja on Monday.
The judge subsequently ordered them to be remanded in DSS custody till Friday when their bail application would be heard.
Before their arraignment on Monday, Justice Ojukwu dismissed the defence lawyers’ objection against the commencement of trial.
Defence lawyer, Adeyinka Olumide-Fusika (SAN), holding the brief of Mr Femi Falana (SAN), who was said to be abroad, had urged the judge not to grant the prosecution team the indulgence to arraign the defendants in the face of DSS’ continued disobedience of a court order which directed Sowore’s release from custody since September 24.
He also argued that since September 20, when the charges were filed, the DSS had not allowed the defendants to consult with their lawyers.
“Your lordship, under section 287(3) of the constitution, has the constitutional duty to ensure that the decisions of courts are obeyed.
“The court is not a place where you choose to obey or only willing to obey the decisions that are in your favour.
“This is not something to be encouraged and it is not even permissible,” he added.
But the prosecuting team, led by Hassan Liman (SAN), urged the court to dismiss the objection, arguing that the arraignment could go on since the defendants had been served with the charges since September 20.
He also said the order granting bail to Sowore had lapsed since he was already produced in court for arraignment.
In her ruling, Justice Ojukwu dismissed the objection, holding that since the defendants had been served with the charges, it was immaterial whether they had met with their lawyers or not.
She also said the bail earlier granted Sowore was no longer relevant since it was not predicated on the charges upon which they were arraigned on Monday.
After the defendants took their pleas, the defence lawyer urged the court to allow Sowore to be allowed to continue with the bail earlier granted him by Justice Taiwo Taiwo, on September 24.
The defence lawyer also pleaded that the second defendant be granted fresh bail.
But the judge said since the bail earlier granted Sowore was not predicated on the charges on which he was arraigned on Monday, he must file an application for a fresh bail.
She directed the defendants to file formal bail application and then adjourned hearing till Friday.
The defendants’ court attendance on Monday was their first public appearance after the security agency arrested them on August 3, 2019, over their call for revolution in a protest scheduled to take place on August 5.
Justice Taiwo Taiwo of the same Abuja Division of the court had on August 8, 2019, granted the DSS the permission to keep Sowore for 45 days.
But the security agency refused to obey the court when it ordered that Sowore be released on September 24.
Appearing defiant, Sowore, surrounded by plain-clothed operatives chanted his protest slogan, ‘RevolutionNow’ as he emerged on the fourth floor of the court edifice where Justice Ojukwu’s court was located on Monday.
Journalists who had waited for him at the main entrance into the building were disappointed as the operatives, with the help of the court’s security, used the back door, usually accessible to only judges and other top officials of the court, to take him upstairs.
Sowore, brimming with smiles, raised his left arm waving two fingers in a V-Victory gesture as he passed by waiting cameras.
When the proceedings ended, his supporters chanted revolution songs as he stepped out of the court.
He tried to talk to journalists, but he was dragged away by DSS operatives
‘Like it or not, there’ll be revolution’
Sowore, however, insisted on Monday that Nigeria would witness a revolution.
An 18-second video clip posted on Facebook by one of his lawyers, Inihebe Effiong, showed Showore saying outside the courtroom that, “Ladies and gentlemen, please do not worry; we are on top of this. We are going to have a revolution, whether you like it or not.”
When Effiong, who was also captured in the video, added that, “and it would benefit the DSS too,” Sowore concurred, saying, “everybody.”
Effiong, who posted the video clip, wrote that he was “with Mr Omoyele Sowore after his arraignment at the Federal High Court in Abuja. Listen to his last words before he was taken by the SSS to their headquarters.”
Meanwhile, in a press conference on Monday at the Sahara Reporters’ office in Lagos, the Nigerian Bar Association, Lekki Forum; the African Action Congress, the Alliance of Nigerian Students against Neo-Liberal Attacks, and the #TakeitBack movement, said the President Muhammadu Buhari administration had become notorious for disobeying court orders.
The Secretary of the Lekki NBA, Ayodele Ademiluyi, said the hard-won democracy of Nigeria was in grave danger.
“We unequivocally make this assertion based on the latest flagrant disobedience of a valid and subsisting court order by the Department of State Services directing the release of Omoyele Sowore, the leader of the #RevolutionNow protest and presidential candidate of the African Action Congress in the last 2019 presidential elections.
“We are aghast at the heightened level of executive recklessness under the current President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration through the DSS, which is under the direct supervision of the Presidency, which have refused and neglected to obey a subsisting court order and still went ahead to arraign Omoyele Sowore and Olawale Bakare before Justice Ijeoma Ojukwu of the same coordinate jurisdiction with Justice Taiwo Taiwo that made the order for the release of Sowore,” the statement said.
The NBA said it was ready to lead mass actions against the government for muzzling the independence of the judiciary.
The group said the moves of the current administration were a descent to “dictatorship and authoritarianism.”
The Chairman of the AAC in Lagos, Kunle Ajayi, said the current government was not different from past military administrations which he said had not contributed anything to democracy and Nigeria’s independence.
Ajayi said, “We want to posit today that the DSS has disgraced the judiciary. We are calling on the NBA to discuss this issue because I don’t see any reason for people to say they are going to law school anymore. I also don’t see why people should go to court anymore. The court handed Sowore a bail but he was brought before another judge, who did not even have recourse to the former judgment. This means Justice Ojukwu has already legalised the illegality of the DSS.
“We ask the bar and the bench, do we still have law in Nigeria? Democracy in this country has been gagged by President Muhammadu Buhari. A lot of people have been arrested and kept in detention. But like the governments before Buhari, the Nigerian people will survive all forms of tyranny and oppression.”
He asked Nigerians, including civil society groups and labour unions, to prepare for mass actions across the country.
Also, the convener, Access to Justice, Mr Joseph Otteh, said by allowing Sowore’s arraignment on Monday despite that the DSS did not allow him to enjoy the bail granted him by the court, the judiciary missed an opportunity to demand respect for its orders.
Otteh said he was disappointed by the turn of events.
He said, “I will lean towards the view that the judiciary is giving the executive something like a free pass to ride rough-shod over the judiciary. That is one of the biggest problems that the rule of law is facing in Nigeria. We don’t have that many judges who want to step forward even if it means coming in the firing line to confront the impunity of the executive.
“I had expected that the judge would make reference to the fact that the earlier order had not been obeyed and then take that into account but from what I read, the court was silent on that point.”
Also, the National President, Committee for Defence of Human Rights, Mr Malachy Ugwummadu, said taking Sowore for arraignment when the earlier order for his release on bail was disobeyed by the DSS amounted to an abuse of court process and contempt of court.
Ugwummadu said, “The elementary principle of law that we know and are familiar with is that a contemnor cannot be heard in a court of law except and until he purges himself of the contempt. The contempt in this case, which has been initiated already, is the refusal of the DSS to comply with the order of the court to release Mr Omoyele Sowore forthwith on the condition that he deposit his passport.
Ugwummadu said it was a demonstration that that DSS could disobey other orders which the court will make in the future.
