Human rights lawyer, Mr. Femi Falana (SAN), says he has received instructions from Sahara Reporters Publisher, Omoyele Sowore, to sue the Nigeria Police Force and its officers for torture.
The senior advocate said this in a message on Saturday.
Falana said his client was badly beaten and subjected to dehumanising conditions in contravention of the Anti-Torture Act.
“Since Mr. Sowore’s fundamental right to dignity has been recklessly violated by the police we have his instructions to press for charges against all the officers who subjected him to physical and mental torture in contravention of the letter and spirit of the provisions of the Anti Torture Act of 2017,” he said.
He said from indications, the Nigeria Police Force is waiting for “orders from above” before releasing Sowore.
“Order from above” is a common term used in Nigeria to refer to a superior authority.
He said the police were holding his client for alleged breach of COVID-19 protocols but had denied him bail for two consecutive days even though the law says such offences are bailable.
Falana further stated that his client had pointedly told the police that he had not breached COVID-19 protocols.
The activist said, “Mr. Sowore who was covering an event at the time of his arrest has maintained that he did not breach any of the COVID-19 regulations. He has been detained indefinitely on the basis of orders “from above.”
The lawyer said his client had been tortured and locked up in a detention facility along with armed robbery suspects.
Falana added, “The police officers who arrested Mr. Omoyele Sowore at Abuja on January 31, 2020, subjected him to severe beating and left him with bruises all over his body. As if that was not enough he has been locked up in the midst of armed robbery suspects at a notorious detention facility called abattoir maintained by the disbanded Special Anti Robbery Squad in Abuja.
“The physical torture to Mr. Sowore was prolonged by the refusal of the police to provide him with medical attention. Although Mr. Sowore’s injuries are being treated by his personal physician, the police authorities have refused the application of the detainee for bail even though the alleged offence of breaching COVID-19 regulations is ‘bailable’.
Meanwhile, the Nigeria police have confirmed the arrest of the publisher of Sahara Reporters, Mr Omoyele Sowore, and four other suspects charged with leading an “unlawful” gathering in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja.
It was gathered that Sowore and four other activists were arrested at the #CrossoverWithProtest, they organised in Abuja on 31st December, 2020 and are likely to be charged to court on Monday.
Sowore and some activists had mobilised Nigerians for the planned #CrossoverWithProtest, procession to be held across the country on New Year eve, which police said the gathering at odd hours had created tension in Gudu and Lokogoma areas of the FCT.
Specifically, on Thursday, December 31, Mr Sowore, on Twitter, charged Nigerians to hold a crossover protest by picking up a candle and a placard showing their grievances against the President Muhammadu Buhari administration.
When contacted on Sowore’s arrest, the Spokesperson for the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Police Command, ASP Mariam Yusuf, said that he was arrested along with other four suspects “for unlawfully gathering at very odd hours, thereby causing palpable tension amongst the residents of Gudu and Lokogoma areas of the FCT.”
She explained that the arrest of five suspects were made “in a swift response to a distress call received from some tensed residents on 1st January,2021 at about 0030hrs(12:30am) of an unusual gathering and movement by a group of persons along Gudu-Lokogoma axis.”
The PPRO who said that a discret investigation into the matter as ordered by the Commissioner of Police, CP Bala Ciroma was already in progress assured the public that the the suspects would be arraigned before a court of competent jurisdiction.
Reports had indicated that some of the protesters who escaped arrest confirmed that Mr Sowore was whisked away in one of the seven vans of the Nigerian police mobilised to the protest ground at Gudu junction in Abuja.
It was gathered that the former presidential candidate was taken to Abattoir police station in Logokoma, Abuja where he is currently being detained alongside others.
Sowore was similarly arrested by the current administration and was detained for over 100 days in 2019 for calling for a #RevolutionNowProtest.
