A human rights activist and SaharaReporters publisher, Omoyele Sowore, has on Tuesday, appeared at the Chief Magistrates’ Court sitting in Wuse Zone 2, Abuja, wearing handcuffs.
Reports said that the court presided over by Chief Magistrate Mabel Segun-Bello, would be hearing the bail application filed by Sowore and four other activists.
Sowore was holding a book when he arrived at the court alongside four other detained activists.
The West African Pilot had reported that Sowore, Juwon Sanyaolu, Peter Williams, Emmanuel Bulus, and Damilare Adenola, were on Monday ordered to be remanded in Kuje Correctional Centre by a Magistrates’ Court in Wuse Zone 2, Abuja pending the consideration of their bail applications on Tuesday (today).
The activists were arrested for holding a protest against bad governance on New Year’s Eve in Abuja and subsequently taken to a police unit infamously known as ‘Abattoir’ in the Lokogoma area of the FCT.
The human rights fighters were arraigned on three count charges of criminal conspiracy, unlawful assembly, and attempting to incite others.
However, the activists have pleaded not guilty to the charges.
On the other hand, the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has sent a complaint to the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention over the detention of the five human rights activists for protesting on New Year Eve.
The organization in its complaint demanded the release of the detained activists and probe into their arrest and detention.
SERAP said, “The detention of Omoyele Sowore and four other activists constitutes an arbitrary deprivation of their liberty because it does not have any legal justification. The detention also does not meet minimum international standards of due process.”
