Finally, DSS Sets Sowore, Co-Accused Free From Detention

Finally, the Department of State Security (DSS) has complied with the order of the Federal High Court in Abuja which directed it to release the Publisher of Sahara Reporters and convener of #RevolutionNow, Omoyele Sowore, and his co-accused, Olawale Bakare.
Justice Ijeoma Ojukwu had ordered the DSS to release Sowore and Bakare within 24 hours on Thursday.
Sowore and Bakare were released on Thursday night, few hours after the judge ordered that they should be released within 24 hours.
Justice Ojukwu had on Thursday expressed great reservation over the refusal of the DSS to release Sowore and Bakare.
Consequently, the court ordered the DSS to release Sowore and Bakare within the next 24 hours and adjourned to Friday December 6 for report of compliance of the Court’s directive.
Justice Ojukwu had signed the release of the bail of the defendants after they met the bail conditions.
However, the DSS had maintained that Sowore and Bakare would not be released until their sureties appear before the agency for appropriate profiling.
At the resumed hearing, counsel to the defendants, Femi Falana, had complained to the court that its order as regards the release of documents and the defendants who had been granted bail had not been complied with by the prosecution.
Justice Ojukwu while wondering why a legitimate order of court would not be obeyed, asked if the DSS had constituted itself as a parallel court to the main court.
Ruling on the request for adjournment by Sowore’s lawyer for time to study the documents and videos tendered as evidence against Sowore, Justice Ojukwu held that because the adjournment was created by the prosecution she was inclined to award cost against the prosecution.
Justice Ojukwu subsequently awarded a cost of N100,000 against the Prosecution, stating that trial would only go on upon payment of the N100,000 fine.