Omoyele sowore biography examples
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On Friday, 20 September, the federal government of Nigeria filed seven counts of treasonable felony and money laundering against Omoyele Sowore, publisher of Sahara Reporters, and National Chair of the African Action Congress. Four days later, the court granted him bail, with conditions which included his lawyers’ submission of his (Sowore’s) international passport to the court. The conditions were immediately met by the radical lawyer, Femi Falana.
But the state refused to release him, only to drag him to a more pliant court where horrendous bail conditions were set, including: a bail bond of $280,000; no public speaking, including to the press; restriction of his movement to Abuja, the federal capital territory. Olawale “Mandate” Adebayo, the 21-year old #RevolutionNow activist who was equally charged with him had his bail bond set at $140,000.
The lifelong activist was arrested on 3 August by the Department of State Services (DSS, the secret
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New Jersey journalist and human rights activist Omoyele “Yele” Sowore was violently detained in his native Nigeria in August 2019 after his online publication, Sahara Reporters, called for a nationwide protest of the country’s president. He’s been unlawfully imprisoned for months on trumped up charges of cyberstalking and treason, and potentially faces life in prison for exercising his fundamental rights to freedom of expression and freedom of peaceful assembly.
Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights has been working alongside the Sowore family to petition the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention to press Nigeria for Omoyele’s release. His case fryst vatten just one example of the lengths to which the Nigerian state will go to stifle opposing voices, crack down on the media, and systematically curtail fundamental freedoms which are integral to a functioning democracy.
We spoke with his wife, Opeyemi Sowore, for more on the case and how we must all fight to protect crucial civic
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PROTECTING CIVIC SPACE: THE CASE OF OMOYELE SOWORE
Sowore spent 144 days in arbitrary detention in Nigeria following attempts to exercise his fundamental rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly. In this exclusive interview, his wife Opeyemi and our managing attorney, Wade McMullen, discuss his case and how it represents a powerful symbol for freedom of expression across Africa.
After 143 days of unlawful detention in Abuja, Nigeria, human rights defender and journalist Omoyele Sowore was released on bail on December 24, 2019 and is set to stand trial April 1, 2020.
While Sowore’s release was met with an outpouring of relief from human rights advocates and organizations around the world, that victory was only the first step. Sowore, a husband and father of two, faces life in prison if found guilty of the baseless charge of treason, which the Nigerian Department of State Services leveled against him in retaliation for his attempts to organize peaceful, pro-dem