Femi Falana, counsel to the convener of RevolutionNow Movement, Omoyele Sowore, has described the re-arrest of his client by the Department of State Security (DSS) as embarrassing and unprecedented.
KanyiDaily had reported that DSS operatives invaded the courtroom of an Abuja Federal High Court, disrupted the ongoing trial of Sowore, chased away lawyers, before re-arresting the convener of RevolutionNow movement who was just released from detention yesterday (Thursday) night after spending 124 days in jail.
Speaking with Channels Television after the incident, Falana condemned DSS’s invasion of the courtroom, saying it has never happened in Nigeria’s history.
The human right lawyer revealed that the DSS re-arrested Sowore and his co-accused, Olawale Bakare for questioning at their office in order to file fresh charges against them.
“The atmosphere was very rowdy, but I insisted that the arrest could not be carried out within the precinct of the court. He was going to be arrested outside the premises but there was a crowd that resisted the arrest, but I appealed to everybody and asked Sowore to jump into my car and so we drove to the office of the SSS because they said he will just answer a few questions, but now he is being detained.
“We are going to take steps under the law by asking for his release again since they are claiming this is a fresh arrest.
“Nobody has disclosed yet what his charges are; he couldn’t have committed any other offence because he has been detained for the past four months unless the SSS wants to tell the whole world that he committed this fresh offence while in their custody.”
Sowore’s re-arrest comes barely 24 hours after his release at exactly 7:15 pm on Thursday, hours after Justice Ijeoma Ojukwu of the Federal High Court in Abuja expressed displeasure over their continued detention by the agency.