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CACOL Cautions DSS Against Moving Sowore, Bakare To Prison

December 2, 2019

Reacting to the report, CACOL said it was worrisome that on two separate occasions, the accused were granted bail by the same court government paraded them before.

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The Centre for Anti-Corruption and Open Leadership has urged the Nigerian Government against transferring Omoyele Sowore and co-defendant, Olawale Bakare, from the detention of the Department of State Services to prison.

Lead counsel of Sowore, Femi Falana (SAN), had alleged that the government was making plans to move his clients to prison custody.

Reacting to the report, CACOL said it was worrisome that on two separate occasions, the accused were granted bail by the same court government paraded them before.

In a statement by National Coordinator of the Centre, Mr Debo Adeniran, and signed by its Coordinator, Media and Publications, Adegboyega Otunuga, CACOL stated that the non-compliance with court orders to release Sowore and Bakare does not portend a good omen for Nigeria’s democracy or international image.

Adeniran said, “As a partner in the quest for deepening our democracy and fostering good governance, we hereby call for immediate respect for the judicial pronouncement on the accused by their release.

“We agree with the argument of their lawyers and the general opinion that the request of the DSS for the appearance of their sureties at its headquarters for their onward release was an afterthought and has no precedent in law.

“It is our belief that the accused were only motivated by the subsisting and existential economic conditions prevalent and had no intention or record of violent disruption of government.

“It is for this that we advise an immediate and fence-mending approach that would restore dignity and respect to governance while critical efforts must be made towards redressing age-old situation that has made Nigeria to hibernate between a workable federation to a troubled contraption.”