However, after a lengthy legal battle, the Nigerian government announced its discontinuation of the case after the court threatened to strike out the case.
Human rights activist and presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC) in the 2019 and 2023 general elections, Omoyele Sowore, has said that some elements in former President Muhammadu Buhari-led Nigerian government, whom he described as “ruinous”, did everything possible to shut him down and anybody who was opposed to the “regime” but he did not let the power brokers break him.
Sowore said this on Friday while reacting to the President Bola Tinubu-led government’s recent discontinuation of the treasonable felony charge levelled against him and his co-defendant, Olawale Bakare, by the previous government.
Recall that Sowore, convener of #RevolutionNow and Bakare were prosecuted by the Buhari administration for calling for a nationwide #RevolutionNow protest against the former President.
However, after a lengthy legal battle, the Nigerian government announced its discontinuation of the case after the court threatened to strike out the case.
Sowore, while featuring on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Friday evening said that he didn’t allow the former administration to break him. He accused operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS) of being reckless in their conduct after forcibly "abducting" him in court before the judge.
He said, “They came to court in 2019, and DSS abducted me in front of a judge. If that is not punishment, then what is punishment?
“But I did not break, I didn’t let them break me. That is the only good news I have for all of you. There is nothing that wasn’t expected. We knew that this was going to happen.”
Speaking further, the human rights activist who took a swipe at the Buhari administration for his ordeal in the hands of DSS operatives, described the immediate past government as a ruinous regime.
He said that those in government at the time were willing to clamp down on critics of the administration.
According to him, “Those in the government led by Buhari would do everything to shut anybody who was opposed to that ruinous regime and the political party in power at that time which had continued till today.”