FG Must Obey Court Ruling On Omoyele Sowore – Thomas-Wilson Ikubese

Ex Presidential Aspirant and Convener of YesWeFit Revolutionary Movement, Dr Thomas-Wilson Ikubese, has begged the Department of States Services, DSS, to adhere to court orders and release convener of #RevolutionNow protest, Mr Omoyele Sowore.

Dr Thomas revealed this in a statement today.

He said the DSS which had approached the court to detain Sowore has decided to disobey the court order despite Omoyele Sowore fulfilling his bail conditions.

He begged FG led by President Muhammadu Buhari to instruct the DG of the DSS to obey court orders and free Sowore.

His words in the statement, “On the 24th day of September, 2019 the Federal High Court sitting in the FCT granted Omoyele Sowore bail from the custody of the Department of State Services (DSS), having been confined therein for 45 days. Today makes it four days after that ruling was delivered by Justice Taiwo Taiwo, yet the DSS has not complied, as it still keeps Omoyele Sowore who has since met the bail conditions in custody.

I would not waste my time to dwell on the ridiculousness and oddity of the charges brought against Sowore by the DSS, as so much has been said about the authority-paranoia depicted therein. It is indeed paradoxical and lamentable that the DSS approached the court to obtain order to detain Sowore for 45 days, a prayer which the court granted.

Now, that the same court ruled at the expiration of the 45 days, that he be released on bail while the trial continues, the DSS is foot dragging in obeying the directive from the third arm of government! This development sends a very wrong signal to Nigerians and the global community, that Nigeria is a lawless nation, that does not respect court judgments and does not believe in the rule of law, a perception that puts the country on the black list of potential foreign investors, who may need to run to the court wherein they perceive that their business is endangered by authority breach at some points.

This malodorous interpretation is also capable of enacting anarchy in the system, because the common man who ordinarily should see the court as his last hope in dispute resolution, will now see the court as powerless and may therefore resort to self help, without recourse to legal jurisprudence.

I urge President Muhammadu Buhari to instruct the Director of DSS to urgently obey the court order by releasing Omoyele Sowore without further delay and take a step further by obeying all other subsisting court rulings.

I urge the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ), all professional bodies and all men and women of honour to speak against this anomaly in the interest of our polity. This is not about Omoyele Sowore, but about the very soul of our nation.

Even if you do not like him or his approach, keeping quiet at this time is tantamount to encouraging government rascality and endangering the very fabrics of our democracy, for the fate that befell one today, might befall another tomorrow.”