A United States senator, Robert Menendez and a member of congress, Josh Gottheimer have petitioned the Nigerian Head of Mission to America, Sylvanus Adiewere Nsofor, over the continued detention of convener of #RevolutionNow movement and Publisher of SaharaReporters, Omoyele Sowore.
Recall that Omoyele Sowore who was arrested on August 3 by the SSS for planning a protest popularised with the hashtag #RevolutionNow, was granted bail for the second time on October 18. A previous bail granted the defendant on September 24 was not complied with by the SSS. He is facing trial on seven counts of treasonable felony, fraud, cyberstalking and insulting President Buhari.
Meanwhile, reacting to this, the US lawmakers expressed concern over the continued detention of Sowore having fulfilled bail conditions twice, with Court ordering of his release.
The petition of the lawmakers partly read: “We write to express our strong concern over closing media and civic space in Nigeria.
“There have been a lot of troubling reports about Nigerian security services assaulting and detaining journalists using excessive force on non-violent protesters and taking other actions that inhibit freedom of expression, and otherwise prevent Nigerians from fully exercising their fundamental constitutional rights.”
The concerned lawmakers further called on Buhari and government agencies to do the needful because the international community are watching critically and will not be remain mute until Sowore and other prisoners of conscience were released.
It would be recalled that Justice Ijeoma Ojukwu of the Federal High Court also threatened to jail the Director-general of the state security service (DSS) over the continued detention of Omoyele.
Probably the fate awaiting Sowore could snowball into that of another Mandela by the time he goes through the furnace. The outcome of Nelson Mandel’s imprisonment after 27 years was quite astonishing. Nigeria spent tremendous resources in the campaign to free Mandela. No fuss.