The Nigerian Presidency has said that detained activist, Omoyele Sowore, is a person of interest to a security organ like the Department of State Services, which does not need the permission of President Muhammadu Buhari to do its work whenever it needs to act.
In a statement on Sunday by President Buhari’s spokesperson, Mr. Garba Shehu, it noted that Sowore’s antecedents and actions ordinarily make him a person of interest to the DSS.
It said so far the agency had acted within its constitutional powers and did not need to seek Buhari’s approval to act on security matters.
The Presidency was reacting to media reports on Friday’s re-arrest of the convener of the #RevolutionNow protests.
It noted that no government would fold its alms and allow a country to be destabilised under it.
The Presidency also said Sowore was no ‘ordinary citizen’ expressing his rights as perceived by the public but a former presidential candidate and convener of revolution protests against a democratic government.
“The DSS does not necessarily need the permission of the Presidency in all cases to carry out its essential responsibilities that are laid down in the Nigerian Constitution – which was the foundation for the restoration of democracy in our country in 1999.
“However, it should not surprise anyone who has followed his actions and words that Sowore is a person of interest to the DSS”, the Presidency said.
The Presidency was silent on the DSS’ repeated disobedience to court rulings ordering Sowore’s release and the desecration of a Nigerian court by the DSS as they re-arrested Sowore on Friday.
Read the full statement below:
SOWORE: BETWEEN FACTS AND FICTION
The Presidency notes some of the insinuations in the media about the arrest by the Department of State Services (DSS) of the agitator, Omoyele Sowore.
The DSS does not necessarily need the permission of the Presidency in all cases to carry out its essential responsibilities that are laid down in the Nigerian Constitution – which was the foundation for the restoration of democracy in our country in 1999.
However, it should not surprise anyone who has followed his actions and words that Sowore is a person of interest to the DSS. 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 destabilization in the country and do nothing.
Mr. Sowore is no ordinary citizen expressing his views freely on social media and the internet. He was a presidential candidate himself, who ran – and lost – as the flag bearer of the African Action Congress (AAC) in the February 23 general elections. Nigeria’s democracy was a long time in the making, and was achieved after decades of often harsh, military-led overthrows of government: the kind of situation Sowore was advocating.
To believe in and desire armed revolution is not normal amongst ‘human rights activists’, as Sowore has been incorrectly described. Again, it is no surprise that he should be a person of interest to the DSS. Nigeria is already dealing with an insurgency that has left millions of people displaced and desperate in the northeastern region of our country.
The Boko Haram militants, who are behind the violence, also fancy themselves to be fighting for some sort of revolution. Nigerians do not need another spate of lawlessness and loss of lives all in the name of ‘revolution’, especially not one that is orchestrated by a man who makes his home in far away New York – and who can easily disappear and leave behind whatever instability he intends to cause, to wit, Nnamdi Kanu.
This is a matter for the DSS, acting under its powers.
Garba Shehu
Senior Special Assistant to the President
(Media & Publicity)
December 8, 2019
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