Sowore, a former presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC) in a post on his X (formerly Twitter) handle on Friday, said that it was not yet time to declare victory.
Human rights activist and convener of #RevolutionNow, Omoyele Sowore, has said that though the Nigerian government has discontinued its case of alleged treason against him, the battles to liberate Nigeria from bad governance, corruption and poverty are “still plentiful”.
Sowore, a former presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC) in a post on his X (formerly Twitter) handle on Friday, said that it was not yet time to declare victory.
The battles are plentiful and it is no time to declare victory until total liberation is achieved but we can’t fail to take a minute to appreciate these men and a woman of valour on our legal team led by indefatigable Femi Falana SAN, and Funmi Falana SAN, Olumide Adeyinka Fusika… pic.twitter.com/Y21bWD6nat
— Omoyele Sowore (@YeleSowore) February 16, 2024
According to him, that will wait until total liberation is achieved.
Sowore, who has been at the forefront of the fight against corruption, bad governance, rule of law and total respect for the rights of Nigerians and Africans in general, also expressed his gratitude to his legal team led by human rights lawyers, Femi Falana (SAN) and Funmi Falana (SAN).
SaharaReporters on Thursday reported that the Nigerian government under President Bola Tinubu had discontinued its case of alleged treason against Sowore.
A Notice of Discontinuance stamped by the Federal High Court in Abuja on Thursday and signed by the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi (SAN) on Wednesday, said the complainant (Federal Government of Nigeria) would discontinue the case.
The notice reads, “By virtue of the power conferred on me under Section 174 (1) (c) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 as amended, Section 107 (1) of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act 2015 and all other powers enabling me in that behalf, I Lateef Olasunkanmi Fagbemi, SAN intend to discontinue Charge No: FHC/ABJ/CR/235/2019.”
SaharaReporters reported on Wednesday that Justice Emeka Nwite of the Federal High Court, Abuja, had again threatened to strike out the farcical treason charge filed against Sowore if the Nigerian government was not ready to go on with the case five years later.
The judge handed down the warning at the resumed hearing of the case.
The case which was slated for trial could not go on as the 1st defendant could not take his plea following the announcement of the new prosecution lawyer, A.Y Tahir, who said that she would be taking over the case on the ground that the lawyer handling the case initially had been transferred out of the Ministry of Justice.
She therefore requested an adjournment to enable her to study and be abreast of the case.
But the defence counsel, Marshal Abubakar, objected to the application on the ground that the prosecution was playing to the gallery to waste the time of the court.
Marshal argued that the prosecution had applied for five adjournments since the case had started de novo. He urged the court to strike out the case because the Nigerian government was not ready with the case but only bent on keeping his client in the country in perpetuity.
He said his client, who is the 1st defendant in the case, had been confined within the country for five years and had not been able to visit his family in the United States.
Expressing his appreciation to his legal team and some other lawyers including his brothers on Friday, Sowore wrote, “The battles are plentiful and it is no time to declare victory until total liberation is achieved but we can’t fail to take a minute to appreciate these men and a woman of valour on our legal team led by indefatigable Femi Falana (SAN), and Funmi Falana (SAN); Olumide Adeyinka Fusika (SAN); Ebun Adegboruwa (SAN); Abdul Mahmud; Femi Aborisade; Inibehe Effiong; Stanley Imhanruor; Tope Akinyode and importantly, the gallant Abubakar Marshal.
“I should not forget to mention my younger brother lawyers, Allen Sowore and Akinwunmi Sowore who took a resilient position in ensuring this unjust case was vanquished.
“Several other lawyers across Nigeria took up cases on behalf of #RevolutionNow activists in Nigeria who were arrested on August 5th 2019 are too numerous to mention. We are grateful to you ALL.
“May the Revolutionary Force continue to be with you until we attain total liberation.”