8/12/2024
Former presidential candidate, Omoyele Sowore has said the planned December 10 protest against the arrest and detention of human rights activist, Dele Farotimi will hold despite opposition from police.
Sowore, who is the Publisher of Sahara Reporters, gave the indication on Sunday.
Taking to X on Wednesday, December 4, Sowore announced the “Nationwide/Global Protest Against the Nigerian Judiciary” over Farotimi’s incarceration.
Farotimi was on Wednesday remanded in prison custody until December 10 by a magistrate’s court in Ekiti State, after the state police command arraigned him for “criminally defaming” a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Chief Afe Babalola in a book titled: “Nigeria and its Criminal Justice System”.
Sowore said the protest would be held at the Police Headquarters, Ado-Ekiti in Ekiti State, among other places in Nigeria and London, United Kingdom.
However, the Ekiti State Police Command on Saturday warned against holding any protest in the state.
The command spokesman, DSP Sunday Abutu said, “Any form of unlawful gathering, demonstration or protest is unacceptable as the intelligence report available has it that some unscrupulous individuals have planned to hide under this protest to hijack it and unleash mayhem and create apprehension in the state.”
Reacting in an X post on Sunday, Sowore said the protest would hold as planned.
He said, “An unjust act of oppression cannot stand no matter how ‘well presented’ that it was done under the color of law! #FreeDeleFarotimiNow
“… on December 10, 2024, in Lagos, Abuja, Ado-Ekiti, Benin City, Toronto, and the city of London, the people intoxicated by power will be confronted by the power of the people!”