Omoyele Sowore, converner of RevolutionNow Movement, and Adebayo Bakare, his co-defendant, have described the application by federal government to transfer them from the custody of the Department of State Service (DSS) to prison, as “frivolous”.
The duo, who were arrested in early August, have been in DSS custody despite court orders on their release.
The federal government had charged Sowore with treasonable felony, “insulting” President Muhammadu Buhari and money laundering.
On Tuesday, Femi Falana, Sowore’s lawyer, said the fresh application filed by Hassan Liman, DSS counsel, before Ijeoma Ojukwu, the judge presiding over Sowore’s trial at the federal high court, Abuja, was intended to frustrate the court’s order for the release of his client.
Advertisement
Falana argued that the application for their transfer from the DSS custody to prison, showed that there was no genuine intention to prosecute them.
“The application was filed by the complainant/applicant to frustrate the execution of the order of release of the 1st and 2nd defendants/objectors from the custody of the State Security Service made by this honourable court on November 6, 2019,” he said in a preliminary objection filed on behalf of the defendants.
“There is no genuine intention to prosecute the 1st and 2nd defendants by the complainant/applicant as the statement of witnesses this honourable court ordered to be availed the defence team is yet to be issued and served.
Advertisement
“The grounds upon which the complainant’s/applicant’s application is hinged are frivolous, vexatious, contemptuous, manifestly unarguable and unknown to law.”
The court had earlier issued a warning to Yusuf Bichi, director-general of DSS, that he could be sent to prison over the refusal of the agency to comply with the order to release Sowore.
Add a comment
