HUMAN rights activist and the 2023 presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC), Omoyele Sowore, remains in police custody nearly a day after honouring an invitation by the Nigeria Police Force’s IGP Monitoring Unit in Abuja.
Sowore had on Wednesday, August 6, disclosed that he would appear before the unit at 11:00 a.m. on the same day, following a letter of invitation from the police dated August 5 and signed by DCP Akin Fakorede, the Head of the IGP Monitoring Unit.
The invitation, which followed a request from Sowore’s legal team to reschedule a prior appointment, did not include a copy of the petition against him, a move the activist described as an attempt by the police to conceal a sinister plot.
Sowore had questioned the legality of the initial police summons and requested that a fresh invitation be issued, adding that the police must clearly state the legal grounds and include prior access to the petition against him.
While the Force rescheduled the appointment, it failed to detail the content of the petition against the activist.
“The IGP Monitoring Unit has scheduled my interview for tomorrow at 11:00 AM, yet they have refused to provide a copy of the purported petition against me. It is now clear that their intention is to conceal the sinister plan of the illegal IGP and continue operating in darkness.
“Despite this, I will honour the invitation — but not alone. I will be going with a full house,” Sowore wrote on his X page.
Hours after appearing before the police, his handle posted that two petitions were presented to him, one alleging forgery and another allegedly written by a senior female police officer accusing him of “criminal defamation.”
He claimed the officer, Bukola Yemisi Kuti, had recently been promoted to ACP due to her ties with the top police hierarchy.
Sowore consequently slept in police custody following hours of questioning.
On Thursday, August 7, his social media account alleged that a special unit led by CSPs and former SARS commander Akin Fakorede stormed his detention cell at the Force Investigation Department (FID), broke his right hand, and whisked him away to an undisclosed location.
The post accused the IGP, Kayode Egbetokun, and Force PRO, Olumuyiwa Adejobi, of complicity.
There has been no official statement from the police regarding Sowore’s location or condition at the time of this report, with attempts to reach the police spokesperson also proving abortive.
Human rights group, lawyers condemn detention
Meanwhile, the development has triggered concern among human rights groups, Nigerians and lawyers, who are calling for his immediate release.
Reacting to this in a statement released on Wednesday, Amnesty International condemned the action as arbitrary and a violation of Sowore’s human rights.
“Amnesty International strongly condemns the arbitrary detention of human rights activist and journalist Omoyele Sowore, who has been facing ongoing harassment and intimidation by the Nigerian Police,” the statement read.
It urged the government to release Sowore without conditions and to dismiss what it termed as baseless and politically driven allegations against him.
Amnesty further advised the authorities to engage constructively with dissenting voices rather than resorting to the misuse of state power to suppress them.
Also, a human rights lawyer, Inibehe Effiong, warned that “Nothing should happen to Sowore. This lawless IGP should be careful; his atrocities have gotten worse. He should know that he is not above the laws of this country,” he wrote on X.
Similarly, in a series of posts made on X, another human rights lawyer, Festus Ogun, condemned the arrest and detention of Sowore, describing the move as a gross abuse of power and a blatant violation of fundamental human rights.
Ogun criticised the NPF for what he called an “unprecedented attack” on Sowore’s rights to dignity, personal liberty, and freedom of expression.
Ogun called for accountability, demanding that all officers involved, including the magistrate who issued the ‘suspicious’ detention order, face disciplinary action.
“Egbetokun and his co-travellers are forbidden by law to use the police in settling personal scores. How did the police obtain a detention order against Sowore prior to his arrest? All officers involved, including the magistrate who granted the suspicious order, should be thoroughly disciplined,” he said.
Mustapha Usman is an investigative journalist with the International Centre for Investigative Reporting. You can easily reach him via: musman@icirnigeria.com. He tweets @UsmanMustapha_M