‘Treasonable felony’: Court discharges Sowore, orders DSS to release seized items

A federal high court in Abuja has discharged Omoyele Sowore, publisher of Sahara Reporters, of an alleged treasonable felony charge.

Olawale Bakare, co-defendant in the suit, was also discharged.

Emeka Nwite, presiding judge, gave the ruling on Monday after A.R. Tahir, counsel for the attorney-general of the federation (AGF), withdrew the charge.

Nwite also ordered the Department of State Services (DSS) to immediately release three phones and the sum of N10,000 seized from Sowore after his arrest.

The judge equally ordered the DSS to release a phone belonging to Bakare and the sum of N1,500 confiscated from him during his arrest.

Nwite also ordered that Sowore’s international passport be released.

“The court also ordered that my international passport be returned to me and documents of my sureties returned,” Sowore wrote on X. 

The decision to discontinue the trial was communicated to the federal high court in Abuja via a notice of discontinuance, dated February 14 and filed by Lateef Fagbemi, attorney-general of the federation (AGF).

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″.

The federal government had arrested Sowore and Bakare, the co-defendant, in August 2019, during the #RevolutionNow protest organised by Sowore.

They were accused of insurrection and attempts to overthrow former President Muhammadu Buhari.