#FreeSowore: Pro-Democracy Activist Backs Planned Protest Of 5 September

Posted on August 29, 2019

A Nigerian pro-democracy activist, Emeka Chibuzo Ogbonna has said that he is in support of the planned protest called by the Coalition of Human and Civil Rights Organisation (COHCRO) to seek for the release of Mr. Omoyele Sowore by the Federal Government of Nigeria.

A coalition of 53 non-governmental organizations under the aegis of COHCRO have chosen Thursday 5th of September, 2019 to protest continued detention of Sowore, a leader of RevolutionNow Movement who was arrested by the operatives of the Department of State Security (DSS) on 3 August in Lagos.

He was arrested for calling for a nationwide demonstration tagged, #RevolutionNon against the Government of Muhammadu Buhari.

Comrade Adeniyi Alimi Sulaiman on behalf of the coalition had said that Nigerians and members of the coalition will march from Ikeja and end up at the Command Headquarters of the State Security Service (SSS) in Shangisha, Lagos, where protest letter would be submitted to the Head of the Command.

“This is a protest the all members of Agenda for New Nigeria (ANN) will be willing to join and participate active for its success on 5 September, ” Ogbonna, who had publicly berated the government on the arrest of Sowore and demanded for unconditional release of the publisher of SaharaReporter.

“We will join well-meaning Nigerians to demand for the release of Mr. Sowore. He has done nothing wrong. We saw his arrest as deliberate plans of the government to silence critics, forgetting that critics like us cannot be intimidated by anything.

“The government of Muhammadu Buhari could only do itself a favour if it yields to our demands of equitable justice and good governance,” he said.

Different civil society organizations have also joined in demanding the freedom of Sowore.

Forty-eight of them writing to the United Nations and the African Union to put pressure on the Muhammadu Buhari-led administration to release Sowore.