Femi Falana, a senior advocate of Nigeria, has raised the alarm over plans by the Department of State Services to file fresh charges against his client, detained pro-democracy campaigner and publisher of SaharaReporters, Omoyele Sowore, with a view to keeping him further in incarceration.
Falana made the disclosure on Monday, November 11, 2019 during a programme on Channels TV.
The respected lawyer said that he will file contempt charges against the agency on Tuesday.
He said the contempt proceedings is to compel the DSS Director-General, Yusuf Bichi, to justify in court why the agency had disobeyed orders directing that his client be released.
He said, “I was reliably informed last night by a security official that the government was currently fishing for evidence.
An attempt is being made to file a fresh charge on Tuesday so that there will be an excuse that ‘we are arraigning them in court, hence we are unable to release them’.
“If you recall, that was what was done when Justice Taiwo Taiwo granted Sowore bail on September 24.
“For a whole week, the order of the court was flouted. And then, of course, on September 30, he was arraigned together with Olawale Bakare.
“We are ready for them.”
Asides the contempt proceedings, Falana said his legal team also had plans to file an application under the Fundamental Rights (Enforcement Procedure) Rules to challenge “the illegal detention of Sowore a week before an illegal order was procured to detain him for 45 days.
Human rights activists and civil society organisations had vowed to storm the DSS headquarters on Tuesday to collect both Sowore and Bakare that were arrested on August 3 and 5, 2019 respectively.
