Operatives of the Nigerian police have allegedly assaulted and re-arrested human rights activist Omoyele Sowore outside the Kuje Magistrate Court, forcing him into a waiting vehicle despite being granted bail.
Eyewitnesses at the court said the incident occurred shortly after the magistrate granted bail to Sowore and 13 others.
According to Sahara Reporters, while his lawyers were preparing to perfect his bail conditions, police officers led by the Investigating Police Officer (IPO), CSP Ilyasu Barau, Officer in Charge of Anti-Vice under the DC-CID, FCT Command, punched Sowore and shoved him into a police van.
Eyewitness at the scene said that the former ADC presidential candidate resisted as officers tried to take him away without offering any explanation.
“The IPO punched him, dragged him on the ground, and forced him into the van. They really manhandled him,” an eyewitness said.
The court presided over by Magistrate Abubakar Umar Sai’id had earlier granted bail to Sowore and 13 others arrested during the recent #FreeNnamdiKanuNow protest in Abuja
Sowore recently organised a protest to call for the freedom of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, from the detention of the Department of State Services (DSS).
IPOB is a separatist group which seeks to restore the defunct Republic of Biafra, a country which seceded from Nigeria in 1967 prior to the Nigerian Civil War and was subsequently dissolved following its defeat in 1970.
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