The Coalition of Human and Civil Rights Organizations ( COHCRO), has accused the Department of State Services (DSS) of fabricating stories in order to continue to detain Omowole Sowore, Sahara Reporters publisher and leader of the RevolutionNow movement.
National Coordinator of the group, Comrade Adeniyi Alimi Sulaiman, who made the accusation in a statement during the week, urged the DSS to stop “concocting lies against Mr. Sowore.”
Sowore, it would be recalled, had organised a protest march against what he called poor governance under President Muhammadu Buhari tagged #RevolutionNow, which was to hold on August 5, but he was arrested by the DSS prior to the protest date and has since been charged with attempting to overthrow the government among other charges before an Abuja High Court.
The groups also backed the position of former Minister of Education, Mrs Oby Ezekwesili that Sowore and his idea could not be caged.
Reacting to the decision of the Federal High Court, Abuja to reject hearing of Sowore’s application, Sulaiman disagreed with Justice Nkweonye Maha over declination to hear the Sowore’s application on 45 days detention order by Justice Taiwo Taiwo, saying that the fundamental rights of the applicant should be respected in this matter of national importance.
He argued that the action of Justice Maha was tantamount to “miscarriage of justice and against the international best judicial practices and tenets of Nigeria Constitutional democracy.”
According to him, “The laws in Nigeria are made presently in typical Orwellian fashion, in which all animals are supposed to be equal but some are equal other than others.”
The group restated its resolve to hold 2million-man protest march for the detained Sowore on 5th of September.
The protest, Sulaiman said, will draw participants from Centre for Human Rights and Social Justice (CHRSJ), Save Lagos Group ( SLG), Centre for Defence of Yoruba Unity, Centre for Constitutional Rights and Anti-Corruption Crusader, Veteran Group for Operation Clean Crusade (VGOCC) among others.
