Lagos State Civil Society Participation for Development (LACSOP) has called on the Federal Government to take prompt actions to release the publisher of Sahara Reporters and Convener of the #RevolutionNow movement, Omoyele Sowore.
In a press release signed by Barr Ayo Adebusoye, Chairman, Steering Committee of LACSOP, he said the actions of the Federal Government could create a long lasting citizens’ perception that it disregards freedom of expression which is a core foundation of democracy.
Adebusoye condemned the Ex-parte Order which was granted by a Federal High Court to the Department of State Services to detain Sowore for 45days.
Adebusoye said Civil demonstration is part of Human Rights according to the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and decried the reactions of the Federal Governments by treating the #RevolutionNow protest differently.
Adebusoye said, “Mr. Omoyele Sowore’s arrest and movement to Abuja by the DSS to face charges related to alleged conspiracy of Treasonable Felony is ultimately an attack on an individual’s Fundamental Human Right to Freedom of Expression and Right to Peaceful Assembly and Association enshrined in Sections 39 and 40 respectively of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended.
“LACSOP wishes to remind the DSS and the Federal government that the continuous detention of the publisher of Sahara Reporters largely forms an emergency Human Rights concern and abuse in the country and this invariably is a threat to the fundamental Human Rights of every Nigeria which the current administration is bound by oath to protect and defend.”