Presidency Reveals The Real Reason Omoyele Sowore Was Arrested By DSS

Sowore Embarks On Hunger Strike In Detention, Gains Freedom

Garba Shehu, Senior Special Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on media and publicity has said that the arrest of Omoyele Sowore, Sahara Reporters Publisher, was not because he is a journalist.

The presidential spokesperson said this in response to the depiction by foreign media that the publisher of Sahara Reporters and a journalist was detained by the Nigerian government. This comes after Sowore was released following a directive from Abubakar Malami, minister of justice, on Tuesday.

In a statement on Wednesday, the presidential spokesperson said that the Department of State Services (DSS) arrested the activist because he called for a revolution to ”overthrow” President Muhammadu Buhari’s government.

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“The Presidency wishes to clarify the release on bail, of the Presidential Candidate of the African Action Congress in the February 2019 elections, Omoyele Sowore. Some international news outlets have mistakenly been describing his release as that of a journalist,” the statement read.

“For the avoidance of doubt, the Buhari administration has never, since coming into office in 2015, detained a journalist, seized copies of newspapers or shut down a medium of information. Sowore called for a revolution to overthrow the democratically elected government of Nigeria. He did so on television, and from a privileged position as the owner of a widely-read digital newspaper run from the United States of America.

“He founded an organisation, Revolution Now, to launch, in their own words, “Days of Rage”, with the publicised purpose of fomenting mass civil unrest and the elected administration’s overthrow. No government will allow anybody to openly call for destabilisation in the country and do nothing. The government believes strictly in observing the rule of law but must safeguard public security and will not allow trouble makers to incite the public and cause a breakdown of law and order.”

Photo Credit: Getty

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