Mr. Abubakar Malami (SAN), the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, has taken over the case against the #RevolutioNow protest convener, Omoyele Sowore, from the Department of State Services (DSS).
In a statement by Dr. Umar Gwandu, the minister’s Special Assistant on Media and Public Relations, confirmed this on Friday.
The statement referred to December 11, 2019, a letter sent on behalf of the AGF by the Solicitor-General of the Federation, Mr. Dayo Apata (SAN), to the Director-General of DSS, Yusuf Bichi, directing the security agency to “promptly forward all the case files” to the AGF.
The statement by the media aide to the AGF, Dr. Umar Gwandu, read in part, “The Solicitor General of the Federation, Federal Ministry of Justice, Dayo Apata who signed the letter referred to a letter from the DSS office on September 9, 2019″.
It quoted Apata’s letter as stating that ” the Honorable Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice upon a further review of the case has directed the immediate takeover of the prosecution of all charges in respect of Omoyele Sowore by the Federal Ministry of Justice in line with the provisions of Sections 150(1) and 174(1) (a-c) of the 1999 constitution (as amended)”.
The statement by the media aide of the minister indicated that the move to take over the case from the DSS was to ensure speedy completion of the case and not due to the disgraceful handling of the case with the invasion of Federal High Court in Abuja by the operatives of the security agency in their bid to rearrest Sowore on February 6, 2019.
It will be recalls that Malami had said on Wednesday that the Federal Government was investigating the incident.