The Federal Government led by President Muhammadu Buhari has charged Omoyele Sowore, the publisher of Sahara Reporters for “conspiracy to commit treason”.
YaahooJournalist reports that the Federal Government in the suit dated September 19 and filed at the federal high court in Abuja, accused Sowore of granting an interview which purpose caused insult on the person of the president of the country.
Olawale Bakare is also listed with Sowore as a defendant.
Sowore, who is the presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC) in the 2019 election, has been detained by the Department of State Services (DSS) since August.
Sowore was earlier accused by the DSS of threatening public peace with his planned #RevolutionNow protest.
The Federal Government also accused Sowore of money laundering and cyberstalking.
“You knowingly sent messages by means of press interview granted on ‘Arise Television’ network which you knew to be false for the purpose of causing insult, enmity, hatred and ill-will on the person of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria,” the suit read.
According to the suit, the Sahara Reporters publisher in April 2019 “transferred by means of swift wire, the sum of $19,975 from his UBA account credited by City Bank, New York into Sahara Reporters Media Foundation GTB account with the aim of concealing or disguising the illicit origin of the funds”.
YaahooJournalist reports that the suit also claimed that a similar transaction involving the sum of $16,975 also occurred in July 2019.
The Federal Government said these funds transfer, are contrary to section 15 (1) of the Money Laundering Prohibition Act, 2011.
On the planned #RevolutionNow protest, the government said, was aimed at removing the president during his term of office otherwise than by constitutional means.
“Conspiracy to commit treasonable felony, contrary to Section 516 of the criminal code act, cap. C38 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004 and punishable under the same section of the act,” the suit further read.
The court had granted the DSS’s request to keep Sowore for 45 days, and an application to bail him was rejected.
On the other hand, security operatives on Wednesday laid siege to the office of Sahara Reporters, a publication founded by Sowore and also the premises of the Committee for the Defence of Human Rights (CDHR) where a pro-Sowore protest was scheduled to be held.
