THE ABDUCTION OF OMOYELE SOWORE FROM COURT PRECINCT: A NATION DESCENT INTO CONFUSION AND LAWLESSNESS!
Today, after our appearance at the Federal High Court in the case of FRN v. Omoyele Sowore & Sahara Reporters, men of the Nigeria Police approached us in front of the court premises, saying the Commissioner of Police, FCT Command, wanted to see Mr. Sowore.
He did not resist. He volunteered to go with them and I followed him as his counsel. But what began as a mere invitation turned into a dark familiar script of deceit.
Instead of the CP’s office, we were taken before the Deputy Commissioner, CID FCT. There, we were told that Sowore allegedly led a protest in an area where, according to them, there was a “court order” prohibiting protest.
I asked the obvious question every lawyer of conscience must ask:
“If there was indeed a subsisting court order and someone violated it, is that not contempt of court? Shouldn’t the alleged violation be reported to the same court, instead of the police?”
At that point, I asked the DC CID a simple question: Is Sowore under arrest? He said no.
Yet moments later, we were taken to another officer one CSP Iliyasu Barau, OC Anti-Vice who demanded that Sowore should make a statement. Sowore rightly refused. “I have not been accused of any crime,” he said, “and I will not make a statement when there is no allegation before me.”
They told us we were being taken to see the IGP. But instead of the IGP’s office, we were driven to the notorious IRT facility in the so-called “Abattoir” a place of dark reputation, far removed from law, where citizens’ rights go to die in silence.
There, Sowore was detained without a court order, without charge, without explanation.
There is no law in Nigeria that permits the police to detain a citizen over an alleged breach of a “court order” in a matter already before the court.
If indeed an order exists, only the same court that made it can entertain a complaint of disobedience.
What the police have done is not law enforcement, it is executive impunity.
In this country, the Constitution still breathes, even if faintly, and the liberty of the citizen is still alive.
To detain a man for leading a protest, to abduct him under false pretext, and to hold him incommunicado is to make a mockery of everything our law professes to stand for.
This democracy that fears the voices of its citizens can never be a safe democracy, even for those in power and for those who benefit from it.
We demand the immediate and unconditional release of Omoyele Sowore, Now!
Signed:
Tope Temokun, Esq.,
Abuja .
0704 431 1083 (WhatsApp only).
October 23, 2025.