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.
A bill to modify the Central Bank of Nigeria Act 2007 has been submitted in the Nigerian Senate, which would increase the minimum fine for abusing naira by 900%, from N50,000 to N500,000.
Senator Mukhail Adetokunbo Abiru (Lagos East) is the sponsor of the proposed legislation, which aims to severely enhance the punishment for abusing naira.
Prior to his removal from office by a Lagos Appeal Court, Senator Darlington Nwokocha was the bill’s original sponsor.
The goal of the bill, “A Bill for an Act to Amend the Central Bank of Nigeria Act No. 7 of 2007,” is to provide the CBN more authority to carry out its main goals.
The bill proposes a minimum fine of N500,000 or six months imprisonment for anyone who refuses to accept naira as a means of payment in Nigeria.
The amendment bill read: “A person who refuses to accept the Naira as a means of payment or who prices or denominates the cost of any product or service or consummates any non-export business in Nigeria other than in Naira is guilty of an offence (unless the Bank has by written circular published in the National Gazette permitted such transaction) and liable on conviction to a fine of N500, 000 or 6 months imprisonment.”
The Senate also proposes a new minimum fine of N500,000 for anyone who engages in the buying and selling of naira notes.
The amendment bill read: “A person who buys/sells Naira notes at a mark-up is guilty of an offence and shall on conviction be liable to imprisonment for a term not less than six months or to a fine not less than N500,000 or Ten per cent of the transaction value (whichever is higher), or six (6) months imprisonment.”
These proposed changes are designed to deter the misuse and abuse of the national currency, ensuring that the naira remains the principal means of transaction within the country.
By imposing stiffer penalties, the Senate aims to reinforce the sanctity of the naira and uphold its value in the face of economic challenges.
Emirates Airlines has stated that it is prepared to resume direct flight service from its base in Dubai to Nigeria twenty-three months after it halted operations there.
The airline made this announcement on Thursday through its official X account.
The service will be operated using a Boeing 777-300ER. EK783 will depart Dubai at 0945hrs, arriving in Lagos at 1520hrs; the return flight EK784 will leave Lagos at 1730hrs and arrive in Dubai at 0510hrs the next day.
“We’re back, Nigeria! We’ll be resuming services to Lagos from 1 October 2024, and we can’t wait to offer unrivalled connectivity to Dubai and beyond to over 140 cities,” the tweet read.
Adnan Kazim, Emirates’ Deputy President and Chief Commercial Officer said, “We are excited to resume our services to Nigeria. The Lagos-Dubai service has traditionally been popular with customers in Nigeria and we hope to reconnect leisure and business travellers to Dubai and onwards to our network of over 140 destinations. We thank the Nigerian government for their partnership and support in re-establishing this route and we look forward to welcoming passengers back onboard.
“With the resumption of operations to Nigeria, Emirates operates to 19 gateways in Africa with 157 flights per week from Dubai, with further reach to an additional 130 regional points in Africa through its codeshare and interline partnerships with South African Airways, Airlink, Royal Air Maroc, Tunis Air, among others.
“As a major economic hub in Africa, Nigeria and the UAE have built strong bilateral trade relations over the years, headlined by Lagos as the nation’s commercial centre. With the resumption of daily passenger flights, the airline’s cargo arm, Emirates SkyCargo, will further bolster the trade relationship by offering more than 300 tonnes of bellyhold cargo capacity, in and out of Lagos every week.”
Nigeria’s Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, SAN, hinted at the development earlier.
Ali Ndume, the Chief Whip of the Senate, has explained the difference between corruption by politicians and other people.
Ndume said corruption by Nigerian politicians should not warrant any serious punishment, noting that it is People-Driven.
The senator admitted that politicians “steal and share with the people”.
He stated this on Tuesday when he featured on Channels TV Politics Today while speaking on the death penalty as the deterrent for those caught with drugs.
He said when politicians’ corruption is compared to others, it is a “small one’
He stated, “If you compare us, politicians, to all the corruption, it is very small. Our corruption is people-driven. If you steal it, you will go and share it with the people. If you don’t, you are not coming back for four years. There is no reason for stealing.
“I have been to the National Assembly, I can’t say because we are on TV now and not tell the truth. If the death penalty is supposed to be included in corruption, I will support it but you don’t go and kill someone that stole one million or one billion, no. But someone who steals one trillion of government money should be killed.
The senator said he supports death punishment for drug dealers.
“The death penalty is the best deterrent for those being caught for drugs. If you do drugs, you are killing people.
“In fact, that means you have destroyed the lives of so many people and killed so many people,” he said.
Recently, the Senate passed a bill, the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency Act (Amendment Bill) 2024 passed by the Senate.
The bill prescribed death penalty for persons found guilty of trading in hard drugs and narcotics.
This has, however, been debated and faulted by many stakeholders on whether or not President Bola Tinubu should accent the bill.
On Saturday, some legal practitioners expressed different opinions on the debate over the bill. Some of them urged President Bola Tinubu not to assent to the bill passed by the Senate while others pressed for it to be signed into law.
Some of the lawyers stressed that the death penalty was not a solution to drug trafficking and other drug-related offences in the country.
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