The Department of State Service (DSS) has said it won’t release Omoyele Sowore, publisher of Sahara Reporters, until due process is followed.
The DSS stated this in response to why it has refused to release the former presidential candidate despite the latter meeting bail conditions granted him by a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja.
The publisher being detained by the security agency is accused of treason, fraud and insulting President Muhammadu Buhari. The federal government has slammed a seven count charge to that effect on him.
He was arrested earlier last month for spearheading a revolutionary protest that went on despite his absence. The publisher was granted bail after the DSS declined renewing an order seeking his continued detention after an earlier 45-day detention mandate it secured elapsed on September 21.
Sowore was asked to deposit his international passport with the court registry, a condition his legal representative said has been met.
Despite reportedly meeting the bail condition, the DSS has said the publisher will continue in detention until due process was followed.
“We have not received the court order. And his (Sowore’s) counsel is a very senior member of the bar and he knows the process to follow; this process has not been followed,” Punch Newspaper quoted the spokesman of the agency, Peter Afunanya, as saying when contacted.
Responding, Femi Falana, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) whose chamber is representing Sowore said the DSS was economical with the truth as one Ayuba Adam from the agency’s Legal Service Department received the said court order on September 25, 2019 at exactly 10:08am.