“The Honourable Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice upon a further review of the case, has directed the immediate takeover of the prosecution of all charges in respect of Omoyole Sowore by the Federal Ministry of Justice, in line with the provisions of Sections 150(1) and 174 (1) (a-c) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended).”
With this statement on Friday, the Attorney General of the Federation, AGF, Mr Abubakar Malami, ordered the State Security Service to hands off the trial of the publisher of Sahara Reporters and a former presidential candidate.
It was issued by the Special Assistant on Media and Public Relations, Dr. Umar Gwandu.
The statement referred to a December 11, 2019 letter sent on behalf of the AGF by the Solicitor-General of the Federation, Mr. Dayo Apata (SAN), to the Director-General of DSS, Yusuf Bichi, directing the security agency to “promptly forward all the case files” to the AGF office.
The letter by Apata, who doubles as the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Justice, was a response to a September 9, 2019 letter sent to the AGF.
The statement by the media aide of the minister indicated that the move to take over the case from the DSS was to ensure speedy completion of the case.
Sowore has been illegally detained since August after two court orders granted him bail. He was briefly released by the secret police last Thursday but was re-arrested less than 24 hours later without any arrest warrant.
But government said Sowore is a “person of interest” to the DSS because he called for “a revolution to overthrow the democratically elected government of Nigeria.”
