Human rights activist and African Action Congress (AAC) presidential candidate, Omoyele Sowore, was rearrested by the police on Friday outside the Kuje Magistrate Court in Abuja, just moments after the court granted him and 12 others bail.
The Magistrate, Abubakar Sai’id, had earlier granted bail to Sowore and the other defendants who were charged with unlawful assembly and disturbing public peace during the #FreeNnamdiKanuNow protest held in Abuja on Monday.
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Sowore’s lawyer, Tope Temokun, said the police officers “violently attacked” Sowore outside the court and “abducted” him without any legal reason.
Temokun described the arrest as illegal, saying: “After the court granted Sowore bail, a group of police officers led by CSP Iliyasu, from the State CID, stormed the court premises and forcefully took Sowore away. They beat him and assaulted others who tried to stop them. I was also injured in the process.”
He added that the police did not take Sowore to prison but to an unknown location.
Earlier, the court had granted Sowore and the other defendants — including Aloy Ejimakor (lawyer to detained IPOB leader Nnamdi Kanu) and Emmanuel Kanu (Nnamdi Kanu’s brother) — bail of ₦500,000 each.
The court also ordered all defendants to submit their passports, provide their National Identification Numbers (NINs), and show three years of tax clearance certificates before being released.
As of the time this report was filed, the police had not issued an official statement on Sowore’s rearrest.