Former presidential candidate of the African Action Congress, Omoyele Sowore, has said the government did not give him his freedom by discontinuing the treason charge against him, but rather that he freed himself by refusing to buckle under the pressure from the previous government of President Muhammadu Buhari.
The Federal Government, through the Attorney General of the Federation, Lateef Fagebemi, filed a nolle prosequi (notice of discontinuance) to discontinue the treason charges filed against Sowore and Olawale Bakare, also known as Mandate.
The charges were filed against Sowore and Mandate in 2019 in the wake of a botched nationwide protest they tagged “Revolution Now.”
The administration of ex-President Muhammadu Buhari said the protest was aimed at destabilising the government or taking over power by violence after Sowore lost out in the 2019 presidential election that Buhari won.
Speaking on Channels Television’s Politics Today programme on Friday , Sowore said he “lost everything possible” while the case was on, adding, however, that the good news was that he didn’t let the government break him.
“I want to say clearly that I wasn’t freed, I freed myself by ensuring that I didn’t allow the government break me. But the truth is that what they wanted was to obtain conviction without trial. That they did get.
“They got me restricted to Nigeria for five years, seized my passport and ensured that my regular life was disrupted to a large extent.
“It affected my family immensely. A brother of mine during that period was killed under still unknown circumstances on Ore-Benin Road. My mum had stroke over this issue and is still down, I lost everything that is possible.
“And within the period they were doing all this, they broke my nose, you see the scar on my face, they shot at me with federal riot gun, and they came to court, in 2019, the DSS abducted me in front of a judge. If that is not punishment, then what is punishment? But I did not break, and I didn’t let them break me, and that is the only good news I have for all of you,” he said.
Sowore further said that his call for a revolution in the country in 2019 had become a reality, adding that those who called for a parliamentary system of government and restructuring, were equally asking for some sort of revolution.
“It is no longer a campaign. The revolution has become a reality now. Even those who were opposed to me in 2019 are now calling for a revolution. Anybody who is asking for a parliamentary system of government somehow wants to change Nigeria. It’s some kind of a revolution too.
“Those who are asking for two bicameral legislative system to be shut down and combined into one, those who are asking for this country to be restructured, are asking for a revolution. Because all of this would have to change the Constitution.
“And don’t get me wrong, that is not the revolution I am asking for. The revolution I’m asking for is for this system that is unjust, unfair and killing our people to come to an end, and that I’ve been clear about,” he stated.
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