The re-arrest of the Convener of Revolution Now, Mr. Omoyele Sowore, and his co-defendant, Olawale Bakere, was based on fresh charges against them, the Department of State Services, DSS, was quoted to have said.
Counsel to Sowore, Mr. Femi Falana, made this known on Friday while reacting to the re-arrest of his client by DSS.
The lawyer spoke on Channels Television.
He however stated that the fresh charges were not made known to him.
He added that the DSS told him that Sowore was being taken away to answer some questions, but ended up being detained.
The lawyer vowed that everything would be done within the confine of the law to secure Sowore’s release.
He described as embarrassing the invasion of the court premises by operatives of the DSS to arrest his client.
Said Falana: “The atmosphere was very rowdy, but I insisted that the arrest could not be carried out within the precinct of the court. He was going to be arrested outside the premises but there was a crowd that resisted the arrest, but I appealed to everybody and asked Sowore to jump into my car and so we drove to the office of the SSS because they said he will just answer a few questions, but now he is being detained.
“We are going to take steps under the law by asking for his release again since they are claiming this is a fresh arrest.
“Nobody has disclosed yet what his charges are; he couldn’t have committed any other offence because he has been detained for the past four months unless the SSS wants to tell the whole world that he committed this fresh offence while in their custody.
“This morning, the SSS lawyers and the lawyers of the attorney-general reported to the court that the order of the court had been complied with and I confirmed because our clients were released last night.
“As soon as the court adjourned the matter to February next year, the SSS operatives pounced on the court, disrupted proceeding and then attempted to arrest our clients even in the web of the court, that was extremely embarrassing because it has never happened in Nigeria where you enter a court to arrest anybody, even an alleged coup plotter.”
The re-arrest of Sowore came less than 24 hours of his release.
Arrested in August, Sowore was charged for treasonable felony and kept away by the DSS despite the court order that he should be released after having met the bail conditions.
On Thursday, the DSS released Sowore following the order of the court to release him within 24 hours.
He was however arrested again on Friday when the DSS invaded the court and caused commotion.
