Sowore made the description during a virtual meeting he had with Ugandan activist and presidential candidate, Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, popularly known as Bobi Wine, on the Africa-Related platform anchored by United States-based journalist, Oyiza Adaba.
Human rights activist and presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC) in the 2019 and 2023 Nigerian general elections, Omoyele Sowore, has described the Nigerian Federal Capital Territory FCT, Abuja, as the “Federal Capital of thieves.”
Sowore made the description during a virtual meeting he had with Ugandan activist and presidential candidate, Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, popularly known as Bobi Wine, on the Africa-Related platform anchored by United States-based journalist, Oyiza Adaba.
Asked by Bobi Wine if he had been granted an opportunity to reunite with his family, Sowore said, "They had me restricted to Abuja, the Federal Capital City that I call the Federal Capital of thieves.
"I was held there for three years and the court reversed it but I'm still held up for five years and I have not seen my wife and kids for four and half years. And so, they still have my passport. They seized my passport.
“I can’t wait till we get Africa back to its feet. Every part of Africa is waiting for Nigeria to get it right so that we can walk that path of freedom together. Let’s hang in there.”
Responding, Bobi Wine said, “Definitely, hang in there too, brother. Let’s keep going. Let’s keep doing the right thing. What is happening in Zimbabwe? It is unfortunate. It has not been very easy.”
In 2019, the Department of State Services (DSS) charged Sowore to court for treasonable felony, cyberstalking former President Muhammadu Buhari among other trumped-off offences.
Sowore was arrested on August 3, 2019 in Lagos State for planning a series of protests against bad governance in Nigeria.
The activist on November 15, 2019, filed a suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/1407/2019 challenging the Director-General of the DSS, Yusuf Bichi, and the former Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN), for his illegal arrest and detention.
The activist, through his lawyer, Abubakar Marshal, had asked the court to declare his unlawful detention by the DSS as "illegal and a gross violation of his fundamental right to liberty”.
In March 2021, Justice Obiora Egwuatu of the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja declared the arrest and unlawful detention of Sowore on August 3, 2019, by the lawless operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS) as illegal.
The court also ordered the DSS to pay the sum of N1 million as aggravated damages to the activist.
However, the Nigerian government has continued to hold on to Sowore’s passport, and though he can travel within the country beyond Abuja, the human rights activist has not had access to his family for over four years.
SaharaReporters had also in October 2023 reported that Bobi Wine was arrested at Entebbe International Airport near the country’s capital, Kampala.
Wine said he was violently taken away by security operatives at the airport and had been placed on house arrest.
He further narrated that his house had been surrounded by armed security operatives.
In a statement obtained by SaharaReporters, Bobi Wine had said, “I am at my home in Uganda. I was grabbed off the plane by armed men dressed as airport workers and dragged into a waiting private car on the Tamark. They drove me to a nearby army base, where they changed me into another car and drove me home.”
“I did not officially/legally enter the country through immigration. My house is now surrounded by dozens of soldiers and policemen,” he had added.