FG withdraws treason charges against Sowore

The Federal Government has applied to withdraw the charges of treason filed against a civil rights activist and convener of the RevolutionNow protest, Mr. Omoyele Sowore, in 2019.

Sowore was charged to court by the former President Muhammadu Buhari-led government on charges bordering on treasonable felony following his RevolutionNow protests.

The Federal Government had alleged that the Sowore and others had while under the aegis of Coalition for Revolution (CORE), sometime in August 2019, in Abuja, Lagos and other parts of Nigeria, conspired amongst themselves to stage a revolution campaign on 5th day of August 2019 tagged #RevolutionNow, aimed at removing the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria during his term of office otherwise than by constitutional means.

However, both Sowore and Bakare pleaded not guilty to the charge,

Meanwhile, about five years after the charge was filed against the defendants, no meaningful headway was made in the matter by the prosecution.

The Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Prince Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, in a letter dated February 14, which he wrote to the Abuja Division of the Federal High Court, applied for the termination of further proceedings in the matter.

The notice of discontinuance he wrote to the court, a copy of which Vanguard sighted on Thursday, read: “By virtue of the power conferred on me under section 174(1) (c ) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999, as amended, section 107(1) of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, 2015, and all other powers enabling me in that behalf.

“I, Lateef Olasunkanmi Fagbemi, SAN, intend to discontinue Charge No. FHC/ABJ/CR/235/2019.”