Pandemonium broke out on Friday outside the Kuje Magistrate Court in Abuja as officers of the Nigeria Police Force violently re-arrested human rights crusader and former presidential candidate, Omoyele Sowore, moments after a magistrate lawfully granted him bail.
The disturbing scene, described by eyewitnesses as “a brazen rape of justice”, unfolded shortly after Magistrate Abubakar Umar Sai’id granted bail to Sowore and 13 others arrested during the recent #FreeNnamdiKanuNow protest in Abuja.
According to multiple accounts, chaos erupted when police operatives led by CSP Ilyasu Barau, Officer-in-Charge of Anti-Vice under the DC-CID, FCT Command, swooped on Sowore, punched him repeatedly, and dragged him on the ground before shoving him into a waiting police van — all within the court premises.
“It was sheer barbarity,” one witness recounted. “The IPO punched him, dragged him like a criminal, and threw him violently into the van. They manhandled him in full view of the public and lawyers.”
Eyewitnesses said the attack came while Sowore’s legal team was still perfecting his bail conditions, only for officers to claim — without evidence — that they were acting on a “remand order.”
“We demanded to see the order, but they refused to show anything,” another observer said. “It was a lawless abduction in broad daylight. They defied the court and the magistrate’s authority.”
The assault reportedly extended to lawyers and supporters who attempted to question the officers’ action, with some sustaining minor injuries in the ensuing scuffle.
Earlier that day, Magistrate Sai’id had granted bail to Sowore, Barr. Aloy Ejimakor (counsel to IPOB leader Nnamdi Kanu), Prince Emmanuel Kanu, and 11 others accused of unlawful assembly and public disturbance, setting their bail at ₦500,000 each and requiring them to present verified National Identification Numbers (NINs), three-year tax clearance certificates, and their international passports.
However, before the ink on the ruling could dry, the same police who had brought the defendants to court turned against the law they swore to uphold. Witnesses say Sowore was forcibly taken to Kuje Correctional Centre, even as the court’s bail order remained in effect.
Civil society organizations and human rights defenders have since erupted in anger, describing the re-arrest as a criminal affront to the judiciary and a dangerous sign of Nigeria’s descent into authoritarian rule.
“This is not law enforcement; it is lawlessness in uniform,” a furious lawyer told newsmen. “When security agents can punch a man already granted bail and ignore a court order, then democracy is in grave danger.”
Sowore, a longtime pro-democracy activist and publisher of Sahara Reporters, has been a relentless critic of government repression and corruption. His repeated arrests and reported harassment by security agencies have drawn condemnation from global human rights organizations.
Friday’s re-arrest, however, marks one of the boldest displays yet of state impunity, carried out in open defiance of a subsisting court order.
As of press time, neither the FCT Police Command nor the Nigeria Police Headquarters had issued any official statement on the disturbing incident.
