Mother of Omoyele Sowore, Esther, has made a passionate appeal to President Muhammadu Buhari, his wife Aisha, and other leaders to compel the Department of State Services (DSS) to free her son.
She made the appeal just as a former Police Commissioner, Abubakar Tsav, the All Progress Congress (APC), the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) and a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Femi Falana, expressed diverse opinions on the Sowore saga.
Sowore’s mother, in an interview, aired on Sunday by Television Continental (TVC), also urged Vice –President Yemi Osinbajo, Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka and Asiwaju Bola Tinubu to intervene in the matter.
She said: “I am begging Buhari in the name of Allah to release my son. It has affected my health. Release my son for me; it is time to release Omoyele. Enough is enough. Aisha help. Everyone is preparing for Christmas and New Year. If not for his detention, my son would now be preparing to go to the village to meet me and everybody in the village.
“Everybody is waiting for him in the village. I am now pleading with President Buhari to help me release him. I mean, fully release Sowore. It should be 100 percent release.
“I am inviting all the leaders – Tinubu, Soyinka and the Vice President to intervene and help release Omoyele Sowore. He is not a criminal; he is a man of God. I know my son; my son loves everybody.”
But Tsav, who served as a police commissioner in Lagos State appeared to have countered Sowore’s mother when he said on Sunday: “If I were President Buhari, I would have taken a sterner step on him than what he is doing now
He stated that the Presidency was justified in likening Sowore’s case to that of the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu.
Tsav argued that Sowore committed a grave offense by planning to stage a revolution after contesting and losing the last presidential election.
This, he said, implies that he wanted to govern Nigeria by force.
The former police boss said: “As somebody that was involved in law enforcement for 35 years, I will tell you the action and utterances of Sowore are very dangerous. They have serious consequences for the country. This is because he contested an election and lost and the next thing we are hearing is that he wants to stage a revolution. That means he wants to govern the country by force.
“If I were him, I would have kept my mouth shut and comply with the conditions of his bail. But he did not do so. So, if I were President Buhari, I would have taken a sterner step on him than what he is doing now.”
SERAP, however, faulted the Presidency for comparing Sowore with Boko Haram militants.
It said: “It is unacceptable to compare citizens who are also activists simply exercising their human rights including freedom of expression with militants who are killing our people and destroying property.”
The group said what was happening to Sowore and his co-accused, Mr. Olawale Bakare, showed clear attempts to further silence critics, activists and the media while the Federal Government continued to undermine the rule of law and the independence of the judiciary.
The group tweeted: “We condemn the statement today by @NigeriaGov issued by Garba Shehu, Senior Special Assistant (Media and Publicity) to President Buhari, which seems to compare Sowore and Bakare to Boko Haram militants. To be absolutely clear: Sowore and Bakare are not terrorists.”
Also on Sunday, the ruling APC accused former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar of spreading falsehood about the event leading the re-arrest of Sowore.
It’s National Publicity Secretary, Mallam Lanre Issa-Onilu said in a statement that Nigerians should be wary of people who are bent on bringing the country down at all cost.
The party called on Atiku to apologize to Nigerians for misinforming them about what happened.
The statement reads: “Following the recent court drama that greeted the resumed trial of the convener of #RevolutionNow, Mr. Sowore, the PDP and its defeated presidential candidate, Alhaji. Atiku Abubakar has typically chosen to present and spread their concocted “alternative facts” and lies on the incident.
“The party will not be drawn into arguments over the powers of the DSS to arrest and re-arrest Sowore over his actions and utterances. The constitutional mandate of the DSS already addresses that.
“Also, the Presidency has clarified that the DSS does not necessarily need the President’s permission in all cases to carry out its essential and constitutional responsibilities.
“Again, whether Sowore flouted any of his bail conditions or staged the incident in court is another matter which the court and the prosecuting agency should address.
‘Atiku in his horrid statement particularly accused the DSS of attacking the presiding judge among other lies being chorused by the PDP and their hirelings. Documentary evidence such as videos and pictures have shown that the tales are a complete ruse until anyone is able to present contrary evidence.
“If Atiku’s intervention was sincere, having realized the truth, he has not deemed it proper to apologize to Nigerians for misinforming them on the incident. Instead, he hangs shamelessly on lies. A commentator has correctly described Atiku as “the king of the bandwagon.”
Meanwhile, Sowore’s lawyer, Mr. Falana, has described as contradictory, the statement by the DSS on Friday’s incident.
He said the DSS made an unsuccessful attempt to absolve itself of responsibility “for the armed invasion of the Federal High Court, Abuja” and “the desecration of Court No 7.”
Besides, he said Sowore’s re-arrest was illegal.
“Having declared that the service arrested Sowore ‘outside the court’, despite the ‘stage-managing’ argument, what the Nigerian people want to see happen is the immediate release of Sowore, pending his trial as ordered by the court,” Falana said.
Falana said the facts show that the DSS was solely responsible for the desecration of the hallowed chambers of the court.
He added, “When I informed the court that fresh charges were being filed against our clients and that they could be re-arrested, the prosecution denied any such plan.
“As soon as the case was adjourned the SSS pounced on Sowore and caused a disruption of the proceedings of the court.
“Having taken over the courtroom vi et armis (trespass with force), Justice Ijeoma Ojukwu hurriedly rose and asked the Registrar to adjourn all other cases.”
Falana said the DSS officers were identifiable by their roles and acts of seizing Sowore and pinning him down.
He added, “It is utter poor reasoning to say that Sowore’s supporters were also those bent on injuring him in order to arrest him.
“The argument of the service in this respect is as unfortunate and pitiable as the earlier argument of the Service in respect of the Late Chief Gani Fawehinmi who was once accused of wanting to set ablaze his own house.”
Arguing that the DSS did not inform the court that Sowore flouted his bail terms, .he demanded his release.
The Lagos State Police Command has clarified that Ayomide Adeleye, who confessed to killing Christianah Idowu, his friend and neighbour, has been charged with “murder” and remains in custody for the offence.
This clarification was issued by the state Police Public Relations Officer, SP Benjamin Hundeyin, in response to reports suggesting that Adeleye was not being held in any Lagos correctional facility.
In his statement, Hundeyin said, “We can confirm that Ayomide Adeleye was charged with murder and was remanded for the same offence.”
“It is also a fact that another person bearing the same name was remanded for a different offence and released in April 2024, long before the Ayomide we are talking about committed his offence.”
“An outfit that prides itself on investigation should live up to its name. Relying on ‘sources’ rather than the spokesperson of the Correctional Service would land you in this kind of misinformation.”
Adeleye, a 200-level Philosophy student at Olabisi Onabanjo University, confessed in September to killing Idowu, a 300-level student at the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, Ogun State.
On November 5, Adeleye appeared before Magistrate Seyi Omodara at the Ogba Magistrate Court.
The magistrate issued a remand warrant, allowing the police to detain him at the Ikoyi Correctional Center pending advice from the Directorate of Public Prosecutions.
Oil marketers have started loading Automotive Gas Oil (diesel) and Kerosene from the Warri Refining and Petrochemical Company.
Dealers confirmed this on Friday, while also requesting Premium Motor Spirit (petrol) from the recently rehabilitated plant.
WRPC, under the management of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, resumed operations on December 30, 2024, after the Group Chief Executive Officer of NNPCL, Mele Kyari, announced its return to service during a tour of the facility.
Speaking with one of our correspondents at the refinery on Friday, the Chairman of the Delta State chapter of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, Harry Okenini, said that while the plant was operational, it was not yet functioning at full capacity.
He, however, pointed out that marketers had begun loading diesel and kerosene from the refinery.
“Right now, there is no production of petrol. So, we are not loading PMS. We hope to load PMS soon. We can confirm to you that the plant is working although not at 100 per cent. And IPMAN, Warri Depot Unit, is waiting for the production of PMS so that we can load.
“For now, only the Automotive Gas Oil, popularly called diesel, and Dual Purpose Kerosene are being produced and loaded out for consumption.
“Hopefully, by February, we are expecting cooking gas, PMS, and other products to come out. As of now, the retail unit is only loading AGO and DPK,” he added.
Also speaking with our correspondents at the refinery, the National Chairman of the Surface Tank and Kerosene Peddlers, a branch of NUPENG, Israel Omokere, confirmed that the refinery was operational.
He said, “Hopefully, the PMS will come on board. We are loading kerosene and AGO for now.”
On his part, the Delta State Chairman of Surface Tank and Kerosene Peddlers branch of NUPENG, Kingsley Erituoyo, said, “For so many years the refinery was down, today the refinery is up.”
Findings at the Warri refinery by our correspondents showed limited truck movements in and out of the complex.
According to The Punch, the activities at WRPC were minimal compared to the refinery’s peak years when it operated at full capacity.
Industry sources revealed that more steps were needed by the Federal Government and NNPCL for the refinery to begin full production of PMS.
During the visit to the WRPC complex, it was also observed that the main entrance appeared almost deserted, with security operatives stopping journalists from taking photographs on the premises.
Sources inside the refinery shared that only one of the three units at the refinery was operational and producing diesel, gas, and kerosene.
“For now, only one unit is working at the refinery. You know there are three units, but only one is in operation, producing diesel, gas, and kerosene.
“The unit can’t give fuel for now. If the second unit starts working, it can produce PMS. It is the last unit to operate because it’s very big and complicated.
“If all units are working, we can load over 100 trucks daily, now it loaded about 50 trucks,” a source said.
Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) began the new year by arresting a wanted drug kingpin and Lagos socialite, 61-year-old Alhaja Aishat Feyisara Ajoke Elediye, on Wednesday, 1st January 2025, in her mansion at the Okota area of Lagos.
This followed the interception of a truckload of illicit drugs from her staff on the same day.
A statement released by the anti-drug agency’s spokesperson, Femi Babafemi, reveals that the suspect, known in the drug underworld as “Iya Ruka” and as Alhaja Ajoke in social circles, had her true identity concealed for years.
She had remained on the NDLEA’s wanted list for leading one of the drug cartels operating from the Mushin area of Lagos.
“The lid was, however, blown off her invincibility on Wednesday, 1st January 2025, when NDLEA operatives, acting on intelligence, intercepted a white Izuzu truck carrying 44 jumbo sacks containing 1,540 kilograms of imported cannabis, driven by one of her staff, 41-year-old Abideen Adio.
Subsequently, the operatives stormed her hideout at 33 Adebayo Oyewole Street, off Ago Palace Way, Okota, where they arrested her.”
Babafemi further stated that, on the surface, Alhaja Ajoke is a businesswoman who imports fabrics and shoes from China, but beneath that lies a vast illicit drug trade.
She is also recognized as the Iyalaje of Blessing Sisters, an influential club of society women in Lagos.
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