Falana asks court to speed up hearing of Omoyele Sowore application

The lawyer representing the detained Sahara Reporters publisher, Omoyele Sowore, on Thursday prayed the Federal High Court, Abuja, to give a date for his application challenging the prolonged detention.

Sowore who is presently in detention had, on August 9, approached the Federal High Court seeking to vacate the ex parte order that gave the State Security Service (SSS) the legal backing to detain him for 45 days.

Sowore, the presidential candidate of the African Action Congress in the February 2019 general elections, was arrested in the early hours of August 4 by the operatives of the SSS in a hotel in Lagos. He was later moved to Abuja.

The state agency said Sowore was arrested on account of the #RevolutionNow protest which he had spearheaded.

However, in a motion on notice, brought pursuant to sections 6 (6) (B), 35 and 36(4) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 as amended, section 293 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, 2015 and under the jurisdiction of the court, Sowore asked the court to vacate the order on the grounds that the order was made in violation of his full rights.

The motion filed on Aug. 9 by Falana, was predicated on 18 grounds and supported by a 24 paragraphs affidavit deposed to by Marshall Abubakar.

Falana, who arrived in Court 10 during the court session at about 1.05 p.m. on Thursday, walked to the back seat. He was not in his lawyer’s attire.

Soon after he sat down, Justice Taiwo called on the lawyer: “Falana, anything? You are not in your robe.”

The lawyer walked to the aisle, bowed and said: “My Lord, I am here in respect of the motion we filed last Friday (Aug. 9).”

The judge said: “I saw it and the reason I have not done anything is that I am ending my own vacation sitting tomorrow (Friday).

“Have you served them (the DSS)?”

“We served them since last week,” Falana responded.

He, however, asked if the judge could hear the motion the next day (Friday).

Justice Taiwo, who appealed to Falana to exercise patience to decide on the case he was handling, suggested they meet in his chamber to discuss fixing the date for the hearing.

After meeting with the judge, Falana told reporters: “We filed our motion since last week and it had not been heard but the DSS filed its own and within 48 hours, it was heard.”

He, however, told the journalists that their motion on notice would be heard next week by another judge.

“Another judge will take over on Monday and we will get the date from the judge,” he said.