Tobias Sylvester
The Federal Government has filed seven counts of treasonable felony and money laundering against the Convener of RevolutionNow protest, Mr. Omoyele Sowore, who has been detention of the Department of State Services (DSS) since August 3rd.
In the suit filed at the federal high court in Abuja on September 19, 2019, the government accused Sowore of granting an interview which purpose caused insult on the person of the president of the country, Muhammadu Buhari.
The charges were signed on behalf of the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN), by Aminu Alilu, a Chief State Counsel in the Department of Public Prosecutions of the Federation, the Federal Ministry of Justice.
The government accused Sowore of cybercrime offences in violation of section 24(1)(b) of the Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention) Act, by “knowingly” sending “messages by means of press interview granted on Arise Television network which you knew to be false for the purpose of causing insult, enmity, hatred and ill-will on the person of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”
“You knowingly sent messages by means of press interview granted on ‘Arise Television’ network which you knew to be false for the purpose of causing insult, enmity, hatred and ill-will on the person of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria,” the suit read.
According to the suit, Sowore in April 2019 “transferred by means of swift wire, the sum of $19,975 from his UBA account credited by City Bank, New York into Sahara Reporters Media Foundation GTB account with the aim of concealing or disguising the illicit origin of the funds”.
The prosecution accused Sowore and his co-defendant of committing conspiracy to commit treasonable felony in breach of section 516 of the Criminal Code Act by allegedly staging “a revolution campaign on September 5, 2019 aimed at removing the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria”.
The prosecution also accused them of committing the actual offence of reasonable felony in breach of section, 4(1)(c) of the Criminal Code Act, by using the platform of Coalition for Revolution, in August 2019 in Abuja, Lagos and other parts of Nigeria, to stage the #RevolutionNow protest allegedly aimed at removing the President.
“Conspiracy to commit treasonable felony, contrary to Section 516 of the criminal code act, cap. C38 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004 and punishable under the same section of the act,” the suit further read.
Sowore, publisher of SaharaReporters and a presidential candidate in the February 2019 presidential election is charged along with Olawale Bakare, also known as Mandate.
