15th February, 2024
By Taiwo Okanlawon
The Federal Government has announced its decision to discontinue the trial of the presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC) in the 2019 and 2023 general elections, Omoyele Sowore and his co-defendant, Olawale Bakare aka Mandate.
The duo were chaged over their #revolutionnow protest.
The decision to discontinue the trial was communicated to the Federal High Court in Abuja via a notice of discontinuance, dated February 14 but filed the next day by the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi (SAN).
The notice reads: “By virtue of the power conferred on me under Section 174 (1) (c} of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 as amended, Section 107 (1) of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act 2015 and all other powers enabling me in that behalf, I Lateef Olasunkanmi Fagbemi, SAN intend to discontinue charge No: FHC/ABJ/CR/235/2019.
Sowore and Bakare were arraigned in 2019 before the Federal High Court in Abuja following his staging of a protest rally in Abuja which he tagged “Revolution Now.”
Justice Emeka Nwite of the Federal High Court, Abuja, had earlier threatened to strike out the farcical treason charge filed against the politician and media owner, if the Nigerian government was not ready to go on with the case five years after.
The judge handed down the warning on Wednesday at the resumed hearing of the case.
The case which was slated for trial could not go on as the 1st defendant could not take his plea following the announcement of the new prosecution lawyer, A.Y Tahir, who said that she would be taking over the case on the ground that the lawyer handling the case initially had been transferred out of the Ministry of Justice.
She therefore requested an adjournment to enable her to study and be abreast of the case.
The application was objected to by the defence counsel, Marshal Abubakar on the ground that the prosecution was playing to the gallery to waste the time of the court.
Marshal argued that the prosecution had applied for five adjournments since the case had started de novo. He urged the court to strike out the case because the Nigerian government was not ready with the case but only bent on keeping his client in the country in perpetuity.
He said his client, who is the 1st defendant in the case, had been confined within the country for five years and had not been able to visit his family in the United States.