A former presidential candidate for the African Action Congress, Omoyele Sowore, has claimed that he was freed not because the government dropped the treason allegation against him, but because he refused to give in to pressure from the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari.
The Federal Government, through the Attorney General of the Federation, Lateef Fagebemi, submitted a nolle prosequi (notice of discontinuance) to drop the treason charges against Sowore and Olawale Bakare, aka Mandate.
In 2019, allegations were levelled against Sowore and Mandate in the aftermath of a disastrous statewide demonstration called “Revolution Now.”
After Sowore lost the 2019 presidential election to Buhari, his administration asserted that the demonstration was an attempt to overthrow the government or take control violently.
During his appearance on Friday’s Politics Today on Channels Television, Sowore said that he “lost everything possible” due to the litigation, but expressed optimism that he refused to let the government break him.
“I want to say clearly that I wasn’t freed, I freed myself by ensuring that I didn’t allow the government break me. But the truth is that what they wanted was to obtain conviction without trial. That is what they did get.
“They got me restricted to Nigeria for five years, seized my passport and ensured that my regular life was disrupted to a large extent.
“It affected my family immensely. A brother of mine during that period was killed under still unknown circumstances on Ore-Benin Road. My mum had stroke over this issue and is still down, I lost everything that is possible.
“And within the period they were doing all this, they broke my nose, you see the scar on my face, they shot at me with federal riot gun, and they came to court, in 2019, the DSS abducted me in front of a judge. Then what is punishment if that is not it? But I did not break, and I didn’t let them break me, and that is the only good news I have for all of you,” he said.
Sowore went on to say that his call for a revolution in the country in 2019 has come true, and that those who advocated for a parliamentary system of government and restructuring were also demanding a revolution.
“This is no longer a campaign. The revolution has become a reality. Even those who were opposed to me in 2019 are now calling for a revolution. Anybody who is asking for a parliamentary system of government somehow wants to change Nigeria. It’s also some kind of revolution.
“Those who are asking for two bicameral legislative system to be shut down and combined into one, those who are asking for this country to be restructured, are asking for a revolution. Because all of this would have to change the Constitution.
“And don’t get me wrong, that is not the revolution I am asking for. The revolution I’m asking for is for this system that is unjust, unfair and killing our people to come to an end, and that I’ve been clear about,” he stated.