Security in and around the Federal High Court, Abuja, was, on Wednesday, beefed up by officers of the Nigerian Police Force as Omoyele Sowore, Publisher of SaharaReporters and Convener of the #RevolutionNow Protest, appeared for commencement of his trial.
Justice Ijeoma Ojukwu had, on Oct. 21, varied the bail conditions granted Sowore and his co-defendant, Olawale Bakare.
Justice Ojukwu granted the order in a ruling on the application for bail variation by the duo charged with treasonable felony and abuse of President Mohammadu Buhari, among others.
She waived the earlier requirement that Sowore should deposit N50m as security and reduced the amount attached to Bakare’s bail.
Ojukwu added that the defendants be remanded in the custody of the Department of State Service (DSS) pending when they are able to meet the bail conditions.
The judge, thereafter, adjourned till Nov. 6 and 7 for the commencement of trial.
Neither Sowore nor Bakare were able to meet the bail condition and had been in detention since August 3 when they were arrested during a midnight raid on the office of SaharaReporters in Lagos by DSS agents.
Sowore had planned to lead a protest against the Buhari government on August 4. Though the protest eventually held, it was forcefully broken up by the police.
Before the court reduced the bail condition in October, Sowore’s lawyer, Femi Falana had argued that the conditions attached to Sowore’s bail were tantamount to giving bail with one hand and collect it with another hand.
Falana said Sowore needed to visit his family and that he is a teacher at a university in the United States of America. (He is an adjunct at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism).
Sowore, who was arraigned on a four-count charge ranging from insulting President Muhammadu Buhari to money laundering, was initially given a bail condition of paying N150 million and had his movement restricted to Abuja.
Sowore was initially tried at another High Court, but when the judge, Taiwo Taiwo, ordered the Department of State Service to release Sowore to his lawyer after he deposited his passport with the court, the case was handed over to another trial judge – who is now handling the case.
Today at the Federal High Court, Abuja, where the trial is set to commence, there were no fewer than six Police Hilux vehicles with officers of the security outfit positioned at strategic areas outside the court premises.
Some of the officers were also sighted within the court.
Sowore, alongside Bakare, is being tried by the DSS over the #RevolutionNow protest. They were both in court.
* With reports from NAN