DSS Officials Chase Judge, Rearrest Sowore In Court

Operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS) on Friday morning re-arrested the convener of #RevolutionNow, Omoyele Sowore, and his co-defendant Olawale Bakare.

He is currently being detained at the DSS office in Abuja.

The DSS is yet to disclose the reason for the re-arrest.

Sowore was re-arrested following an earlier attempt by DSS operatives to arrest him inside the courtroom of a Federal High Court in Abuja.

The re-arrest attempt turned rowdy inside the courtroom as Sowore’s supporters, legal team shielded him from the DSS operatives.

After a stand-still that lasted over three hours inside the courtroom, Sowore’s lawyer, Mr Femi Falana insisted that the arrest should be effected outside the court premises.

Mr Falana in a phone conversation told Channels Television that the DSS claimed they wanted to ask Sowore a few questions but ended up detaining him and his co-defendant, Bakare.

His re-arrest comes barely 24 hours after he was released alongside his co-defendant, Olawale Bakare.

They were released at exactly 7:15 pm on Thursday, hours after Justice Ijeoma Ojukwu of the Federal High Court in Abuja, had expressed displeasure over their continued detention by the agency.

Subsequently, Ojukwu ordered that the defendants be released within the next 24 hours and adjourned the case till Friday, December 6, for a report of compliance.

Sowore, a presidential candidate in the February 2019 elections, was arrested on August 3, just days to a planned protest tagged #revolutionnow against “bad governance” in the country.

Both he and his co-defendant are facing seven counts bordering on conspiracy to commit treasonable felony in breach of Section 516 of the Criminal Code Act, money laundering and cybercrimes, among others.

They pleaded not guilty to the charge and were granted bail on October 4, in the sum of N100m and N50m respectively with two sureties in like sum.

They, however, were not released until yesterday and re-arrested today.