Treasonable Felony Charge: Sowore, Co-Defendant Remanded In Custody

^{Detained activist and convener of #RevolutionNow protest that held in various parts of the country on August 5, Mr. Omoyele Sowore, and co-defendant were Monday docked and remanded in prison.}

^{Sowore had earlier pleaded not guilty to a seven-count criminal charge the Federal Government slammed against him.}

^{Sowore, who was the presidential candidate of African Action Congress, AAC, in the last general election and publisher of an online media platform, Sahara Reporters, was docked before the Federal High Court in Abuja, alongside his co-defendant, Olawale Adebayo Bakare (aka Mandate).}

^{It will be recalled that though Sowore called for a nationwide protest against perceived maladministration of President Muhammadu Buhari’s government, he was, however, arrested in Lagos on August 2 by operatives of the Department of State Service, DSS, three days before the protest held.}

^{Though the security agency subsequently secured an order to detain him for 45 days, pending investigation into allegation that he received foreign sponsorship to wage war against President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration, the court, in a ruling on September 24, ordered his immediate release.}

^{Justice Taiwo Taiwo specifically directed the agency to hand him over to his lead counsel, Mr. Femi Falana, SAN, within 48 hours, even as it ordered Sowore to surrender his international passport to the Deputy Registrar of the court.}

^{Meanwhile, six days after the release order was ignored by the DSS, it produced the defendants to enter their plea before another Judge of the same court, Justice Ijeoma Ojukwu.}

^{Immediately the duo mounted the dock yesterday, they addressed the court through their lawyer, adducing reasons they would not enter their plea to the charge.}

^{Counsel to the defendants, Mr. Adeyinka Olumide-Fusika, SAN, challenged the legal propriety of the planned arraignment when, according to him, the DSS blatantly refused to comply with a subsisting order of the court for the immediate release of his client from detention.}

^{Decrying what he described as an act of lawlessness by the security agency, Olumide-Fusika told the court that aside from the fact that his client were not properly served with the charge, he said they were deliberately denied access to their lawyers.}

^{More so, he told the court that Sowore’s lead counsel, Mr. Falana, SAN, got to know that his client would be arraigned, from Newspaper publications, notwithstanding the fact that lawyers from his chamber were at the office of the DSS till 10pm on Sunday.}

^{Nevertheless, the prosecution counsel, Mr. Hassan Liman, SAN, maintained that the defendants were duly served with the charge on September 20, four days before the court ordered Sowore’s release.}

^{Noting that the court only ordered that Sowore should be released until his arraignment, Liman contended that the order could no longer stand since the duo have been docked on the basis of the charge against them.}

^{Besides, he drew attention of the court to the fact that Sowore had in a statement he made on September 12, indicated that he made it in the presence of his counsel, saying it was, therefore, not true that he was denied access to his lawyers.}

^{“It will be a disservice to the administration of criminal justice to say that the defendant will not take plea, 10 days after he was served with the charge. May that day never come my Lord. This is a very serious charge of treasonable felony, which has a maximum sentence of life imprisonment,” Liman submitted.}

^{After she had listened to both sides, in a bench ruling, Justice Ojukwu, ordered the defendants to enter their plea to the charge against them.}

^{Justice Ojukwu held that it was not in doubt that the defendants were duly served with the charge, adding that nothing before the court showed that any court barred the arraignment of the defendants on the criminal charge.}

^{“I see no breach of any of the tenets of justice in the present circumstance. What is before this court is a criminal matter. I am of the view that there is no impediment to arraignment of the defendants.  The defendants are therefore called-up to enter their plea,” the court held.}

^{Meanwhile, all the defendants pleaded not guilty to the charge, even as the prosecution urged the court to remand them in custody, pending trial.}

^{Sowore’s lawyer, however, begged the court to allow his client to go home on the strength of the bail earlier granted to him, noting that the prosecution admitted that investigations had been concluded on the matter.}

^{His oral plea for bail was declined by the court which ordered the defendants to file a formal bail application.}

^{Before the case was adjourned till Friday, Justice Ojukwu asked the defendants to choose between Kuje and Suleja prisons, where they would prefer to be remanded.}

^{At that juncture, their lawyer begged the court to allow them remain in custody of the DSS, pending the determination of their motions for bail.}

^{Immediately he was being ushered out of the court room, Sowore made a move to address the press, but was roughly dragged away by DSS operatives.}

^{He, however, kept chanting and urging Nigerians to rise against bad governance as he was being whisked away by security agents amid protest from some of his supporters that attended the proceeding.}

^{He was in the charge marked FHC/ ABJ/CR/235/2019, accused of conspiracy, money laundering, cyber-stalking and insulting President Buhari.}

^{In the statement of offence attached to count-one of the charge, FG alleged that the defendants committed conspiracy to commit treasonable felony, contrary to section 516 of the criminal Code Act Cap C38 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004, and punishable under the same section of the Act.}

^{“That you Omoyele Stephen Sowore , Male Adult of No 1 Mosafejo Street, Kiribo, Ese-Odo LGA, Ondo State, Olawale Adebayo Bakare  {aka Mandate} Male, Adult of Olaiya Arca, Oshogbo LGA Osun State and others at large, under the eagis of Coalition for Revolution (CORE), sometimes in August 2019 in Abuja, Lagos and other parts of Nigeria within the jurisdiction of this honourable court, did conspired among yourselves to stage a revolution campaign on 5th day of August 2019 tagged #RevolutionNow”  aimed at removing the President and Commander –in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria during his term of office otherwise known than by constitutional means”.}

^{He was equally charged with legal transfer of funds contrary to section 15(1) of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act, 2011 and punishable under the same section of the Act.}

^{FG alleged that Sowore had on April 2, at Lagos and Abuja, transferred by means of swift wire, the sum of $19, 975 from his United Bank of Africa Plc Account No. 3002246104 credited by City Bank, New York City, USA, into Sahara Reporters Media Foundations GTB Account No. 0424048298 with the aim of concealing or disguising the illicit origin of the funds,}

^{It alleged that he also transferred $16, 975 from the same UBA Account credited to him by LANDRUM of 7e 146 W 29thStreeet, New York, NY10001, USA, via City Bank Plc, the aim to conceal the illicit origin of the funds.}

^{The charge, which was endorsed by the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, SAN, was signed by a senior state counsel, Mr. A.M. Alilu.}

^{FG has already lined-up six witnesses against the defendants, including bank officials from UBA and GTBank}

^{When the charge was read to him, Sowore said he did not understand the aspect that accused him of leading a protest that took place while he was in detention.}

^{He equally told the court that contrary to what was contained in the charge, he never operated a UBA account.}

^{After he sought and obtained leave of the court to discuss with his lawyer, Sowore later pleaded not guilty to all the allegations.}

^{“Though I don’t understand the charge, but based on the advice of my lawyer, I will plead not guilty to the charge,” he told the court.}

^{Aside from the allegation that he was sponsored to fight the Buhari’s, the DSS alleged that in a bid to achieve his mission, Sowore, held meetings with leaders of outlawed groups, and subsequently called for a revolution against a democratically elected government in the country.}

^{It tendered evidence before the court to prove that Sowore held meetings with both the leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu and members of the proscribed Islamic Movement of Nigeria, IMN.}