JUST IN: Court denies Sowore bail, adjourns session to Friday
Emergency Digest: The Federal High Court sitting in Abuja has ordered the remand of the #RevolutionNow protest convener, Mr. Omoyele Sowore, and his co-defendant, Olawale Bakare, in the custody of the Department of State Security Service, pending the hearing of their bail application.
This followed the arraignment of the defendants on seven counts of treasonable felony and other sundry offences instituted against them by the Federal Government.
Justice Ijeoma Ojukwu fixed Friday for the hearing of their bail application as they pleaded not guilty to the seven counts when read to them.
After the defendants took their pleas, the defence lawyer, Adeyinka Olumide-Fusika (SAN), urged the court to allow Sowore to be allowed to continue with the bail earlier granted him by Justice Taiwo Taiwo, on September 24.
The defence lawyer also pleaded that the second defendant be granted fresh bail.
But the judge said since the bail earlier granted Sowore was not predicated on the charges on which he was arraigned on Monday, a fresh bail had to be granted to him.
She added that if she would have to grant them fresh bail, it had to be based on formal written formal bail application and not oral.
She directed them to file formal bail application and then adjourned hearing till Friday.
Sowore, who has been in detention since August 3, was brought before the Federal High Court in Abuja by the Department of State Service, DSS.
He mounted the dock alongside his co-defendant, Olawale Adebayo Bakare and challenged his planned arraignment, when the DSS failed to comply with an order the court made for his immediate release and also on the basis that he was not duly served with a copy of the charge against him.
He addressed the court through his lawyer, Mr. Olumide Fusika, SAN, who decried that as what he termed as an act of lawlessness by the security agency which he said refused to obey the directive of the same court that granted it leave to detain him for 45 days.
Meanwhile, FG’s lawyer, Mr. Hassan Liman SAN, told the court that the defendants were duly served with the charge on September 20 and he argued that the high court only ordered that Sowore should be released until his arraignment.
He argued that the release order has elapsed since the defendants have been brought before the court for arraignment and besides, the prosecution contended that the charge was already served on the defendants before the court ordered Sowore’s release on September 24.
