NGO asks EU to blacklist DSS over rearrest of Sowore

Gavel, a non-governmental organisation (NGO), has asked the European Union to blacklist the Department of State Services (DSS) over the rearrest of Omoyele Sowore, convener of #RevolutionNow Movement.

Sowore was rearrested at the Abuja federal high court by the secret police on Friday – less than 24 hours after he was released on bail.

Armed DSS operatives had stormed the court, forcing the judge to flee.

In a letter dated December 7 and addressed to Clement Boutillier, head of the EU delegation to Nigeria, Nelson Olanipekun, Gavel’s team lead, said the action by the DSS is a “grave violation of human rights and desecration of the judiciary.”

Olanipekun also asked the EU to issue a travel ban on the leadership of the DSS.

“We humbly state that the recent display of impunity in the case of DSS v Sowore and Bakare wherein officials of the DSS stormed the court of law and in the presence of the sitting judge and rearrested the Defendant amounts to gross violation of human rights, desecration of the judiciary and an anti-democratic practices,” the letter by the team lead read.

“This act was done after a flagrant and long disobedience of a standing order of the court mandating the release of the Defendants.

“We humbly refer to European Union’s foreign policy on human rights which provides in Articles of the EU: ‘its relations with the wider world’, the EU contributes to the ‘eradication of poverty and the protection of human rights, in particular the rights of the child, as well as to the strict observance and the development of international law, including respect for the principles of the United Nations charter’.

“Article 21 of the EU: ‘principles inspiring the union’s external action. These principles are democracy, the rule of law, the universality and indivisibility of human rights and fundamental freedoms, respect for human dignity, equality and solidarity, and respect for the principles of the United Nations Charter of 1945 and international law.’

“The above Article endorses fundamental freedoms and social rights as important as civil rights.

“We write to request your cooperation in holding the DSS accountable to human rights and democratic principles as entrenched in international and domestic laws which are in force in Nigeria by investigating the numerous human rights violation of the department, blacklisting the said department and placing travel bans on the leadership of the department.”

He added that “posterity will not forget those who stood up against tyranny and anarchy.”