Nigeria’s fiery activist and former presidential candidate, Omoyele Sowore, has once again bared his mind, unleashing a scathing criticism of what he called the “broken and sold” justice system that continues to crush the poor while pampering the powerful.
Sowore, who regained his freedom on Monday after being remanded at the Kuje Correctional Facility, said he left the prison burdened by guilt and sorrow for the innocent Nigerians languishing behind bars — victims, not of crime, but of poverty and voicelessness.
“There’s nothing more painful than seeing innocent people left behind in prison,” Sowore lamented. “When I was being released today, I felt guilt because I left behind children and adults whose only ‘crime’ is being poor or voiceless while the powerful walk free.”
The publisher of SaharaReporters described his incarceration as a grim mirror of Nigeria’s decayed justice system — one, he said, where money and might determine innocence or guilt.
“It’s a brutal reminder that justice in Nigeria is often broken and sold,” Sowore declared. “Every wrongful imprisonment steals time, hope, and dignity — and that’s why the fight for justice must never stop.”
Sowore’s arrest came after he participated in the #FreeNnamdiKanuNow protest in Abuja last week, alongside Nnamdi Kanu’s special counsel, Aloy Ejimakor, and Kanu’s brother, Prince Emmanuel Kanu, among others. They were accused of “unlawful assembly” and “disturbance of public peace.”
Magistrate Abubakar Umar Sai’id, presiding over the case, granted the defendants bail in the sum of ₦500,000 each, with stringent conditions including verified National Identification Numbers (NIN), three-year tax clearance certificates, and passport deposits.
After fulfilling the bail terms, Sowore and others were released from the Kuje Prison on Monday — but his spirit, as he confessed, remained chained to the injustice he witnessed within those walls.
“Every face I saw in that prison told a story of a nation that punishes poverty and rewards power. That’s why we must keep fighting. Justice must be rescued from the claws of corruption,” he said defiantly.
Sowore’s words now echo as both a lamentation and a battle cry — one against a system he says “feeds on silence and survives on fear.”
