CITIZENS COMPASS— After four days of being detained, former presidential candidate of African Action Congress (AAC), Omoyele Sowore, the counsel to Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, the detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Aloy Ejimakor have regained their freedom.
Also released was Emmanuel Kanu, the younger brother of Nnamdi Kanu.
They were all released from Kuje Prison after meeting the bail conditions approved by a Magistrate Court in Abuja.
Sowore was arrested last week along with Nnamdi Kanu’s Special Counsel, Aloy Ejimakor, Kanu’s younger brother, Prince Emmanuel Kanu, and eleven others during the #FreeNnamdiKanuNow protest in the Federal Capital Territory.
They were later arraigned before Magistrate Abubakar Umar Sai’id on charges related to unlawful assembly and disturbing public peace.
In his judgment, Magistrate Sai’id granted each defendant bail set at ₦500,000 and required them to provide a verified National Identification Number (NIN).
The court also asked the accused persons to submit their three-year tax clearance certificates and deposit their international passports before they could be released.
After fulfilling these requirements, Sowore and the other defendants were released from Kuje Prison on Monday.
His arrest occurred last Thursday shortly after he left the Federal High Court in Abuja, where he had attended another legal proceeding.
The elated Sowore posted on his social media platforms thus, “Leaving Kuje Prison in Abuja after being detained there illegally for four days by the Nigerian regime over #FreeNnamdiKanuNow”
Clad in a native attire, the post was accompanied with the picture of the human rights activist after regaining his freedom.
The Force Public Relations Officer, CSP Benjamin Hundeyin, later clarified that Sowore was held only until his bail terms were met.
According to him, “Your story that he was arrested on a fresh charge and ‘whisked away…to Kuje Prison…to be arraigned on Monday’ is procedurally incorrect. A person arrested on a fresh charge cannot be taken straight to prison.
“No prison will accept such a person without a remand warrant duly issued by a competent court. He was taken to prison as instructed on the attached remand warrant pending when he meets his bail conditions, nothing more!”
