Activist, publisher and presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC) in the 2023 general elections, Omoyele Sowore, has said that he deserves an apology from the Nigerian government for his arrest and incarceration in 2019.
In August 2019, Sowore was arrested and detained by Nigeria’s intelligence agency, the Department of State Services (DSS), following his call for a revolution under former President Muhammadu Buhari‘s administration.
He was later released on bail, but barred from traveling out of the country as per the conditions of his bail.
Two days ago, the fiery activist was freed by the Attorney-General of all treason charges.
Speaking, however, during an interview on Arise Television after the treason charges against him were withdrawn, Sowore, who was asked whether he would demand an apology from the federal government, confidently stated that he shouldn’t have to demand it, but rather, he deserves it from the Nigerian government.
A Notice of Discontinuance stamped by the Federal High Court in Abuja on Thursday and signed by the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi (SAN) on Wednesday, said the complainant (Federal Government of Nigeria) would discontinue the case against Sowore.
The notice reads, “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 Olasunkanmi Fagbemi, SAN, intend to discontinue Charge No: FHC/ABJ/CR/235/2019.”
Speaking on controversies surrounding the charges against him, Sowore said many Nigerians did not understand the context of the revolution until he led a protest to call for a revolution in 2019.
He noted that his goal in 2019 was to achieve a complete system change in Nigeria, which had never happened in any other country.
Sowore said: “I actually was calling for revolution, and I never denied it. There’s only one form of revolution – a change that has never been seen before.
In the life of any country, that’s what I was calling for. And I told the DSS (Department of State Services) guys the same thing when I was interrogated. It is on record. I told the judge when I came to court.
“When they were charging me, I said I didn’t understand the charges because you cannot prosecute the revolution. So there’s nothing different.
“Guess what? Most Nigerians didn’t know the context of the revolution until then. Five million people searched for the word ‘revolution’ on Google on August 5, 2019. I would have been arrested before the protest, and I was surprised that the protest still went ahead across the country.
“An interesting thing now is that it’s no longer a crime to say the word ‘revolution’. Everybody’s calling for revolution.”