Activist Omoyele Sowore has reportedly been assaulted and re-arrested by the Nigerian Police moments after being granted bail by a Kuje Magistrate Court in Abuja.
Eyewitnesses said police officers dragged Sowore into a waiting vehicle shortly after the court approved bail for him and 13 others who were detained during the #FreeNnamdiKanuNow protest.
According to reports, the re-arrest was led by the Investigating Police Officer, CSP Ilyasu Barau, who heads the Anti-Vice unit under the DC-CID at the FCT Command. Witnesses claimed the officers attacked Sowore, punched him, and forced him into a police van while refusing to provide any legal documentation.
“The IPO punched him, dragged him on the ground, and forced him into the van. They really manhandled him,” an eyewitness said. Another source alleged that police cited a “secret remand order” as the reason for taking him to Kuje Prison despite the court’s bail decision.
Earlier, Magistrate Abubakar Umar Sai’id had granted bail to Sowore, Nnamdi Kanu’s lawyer Aloy Ejimakor, Kanu’s brother Prince Emmanuel Kanu, and 11 others. The defendants had been arraigned on charges of unlawful assembly and disturbance of public peace.
