Falana: Jonathan’s PDP charged protesting APC members with terrorism

Femi Falana SAN


Mr Femi Falana, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria and human rights advocates discusses the right to protest, dissidence and revolution in Nigeria in an interview with The NEWS editor, Ademola Adegbamigbe. He reminds Nigerians about how the Jonathan administration once arrested some APC leaders for staging a protest and holding them under the Terrorism Act. The opposition APC then went ballistic. But now the same APC that criticised Jonathan is now in power and is behaving the same way the PDP behaved. Excerpts:


What is your view on the travails of Omoyele Sowore now?

I met Mr. Sowore in the custody of the State Security Service in Abuja last week. He was in very high spirits. I believe that at the end of the day he will come out stronger and more committed to the task of nation building. At the same time he would have learnt some lessons from his travails. But Mr. Omoyele Sowore is in a familiar terrain. As a former student leader and as a publisher of the Sahara Reporters he has had a running battle with the neo colonial State.

The State has a way of playing into his hands. The other day, an influential member of the ruling class wanted to liquidate the Sahara Reporters, an online medium published by Mr. Sowore. He filed a libel suit against him in a high court. And without hearing Mr. Sowore in the matter, the trial judge awarded N4 billion against the publishing outfit. We asked one of my colleagues, Mr. Stanley Imhanruor to take up the matter. He did and successfully ensured that the entire one sided judgment was quashed by the Court of Appeal while the N4 billon award was set aside.

In the instant case, Mr. Sowore was arrested before the revolution now protests took off. So he is only being interrogated over the statements made by him and certain people that he met. Meanwhile, those who were arrested for actually partaking of the protests in Lagos State, Osun State and Cross River State have been charged with unlawful assembly and breach of the peace in the Magistrate Courts. They have since been granted bail pending trial. If the State concedes that the Nigerian people have the fundamental right to protest peacefully why charge peaceful protesters with unlawful assembly? Is there peace in Nigeria to be breached by Mr. Sowore and his comrades? The Nigeria Police Force had announced that Mr. Sowore had committed treason, treasonable felony and terrorism. The State Security Service equally announced that he had concluded plans to overthrow the Buhari administration. If the security forces had reached those far reaching conclusions, what is the basis of having the suspect gaoled for 45 days? From my experience with cases of this nature, Mr. Sowore’s arrest and detention may turn out to be a storm in a teacup.