The Nigerian Government Ought to Apologise to me, Says Sowore

The African Action Congress (AAC) presidential candidate, Omoyele Sowore, stated that the Nigerian government ought to extend an apology for his 2019 arrest and incarceration.

This was said by Sowore during a Thursday interview on Arise Television.

Upon being asked if he would seek an apology for everything that he has been through, Sowore merely responded, “This ought to have apologised first, not that I am asking for it.

You should apologise to me.”However, I am not really interested in an apology. Instead, I will sue them for damages in a court of law where they lack the authority to influence such a decision.

“Remember that the Nigerian government had dropped its treason case against Sowore?In August 2019, Sowore was taken into custody by the Department of State Services (DSS), Nigeria’s intelligence agency, for allegedly advocating for a revolution within the administration of then-President Muhammadu Buhari.

The activist was later freed on bond, but as a condition of his release, he was not allowed to travel.However, the Federal Government of Nigeria, the complainant, would end the case, according to a Notice of Discontinuance signed by Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, and stamped by the Federal High Court in Abuja on Thursday.

“I Lateef Olasunkanmi Fagbemi, SAN, intend to discontinue Charge No: FHC/ABJ/CR/235/2019,” the notice states, “by virtue of the power conferred upon me under Section 174 (1) (c) 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 regard.

“Until he organised a demonstration in 2019 to demand a revolution, Sowore claimed that many Nigerians were unaware of the revolution’s background.He stated that, as it had never occurred in any other nation, his objective for 2019 was to bring about a total system change in Nigeria.

According to Sowore, “I never denied that I was really calling for a revolution.” There’s only one form of revolution – a change that has never been seen before.

“In the life of any country, that’s what I was calling for. And I told the DSS (Department of State Services) guys the same thing when I was interrogated. It is on record. I told the judge when I came to court.

“When they were charging me, I said I didn’t understand the charges because you cannot prosecute the revolution. So there’s nothing different.“Guess what? Most Nigerians didn’t know the context of the revolution until then. Five million people searched for the word ‘revolution’ on Google on August 5, 2019.

I would have been arrested before the protest and I was surprised that the protest still went ahead across the country.“An interesting thing now is that it’s no longer a crime to say the word ‘revolution’. Everybody’s calling for revolution.”