Sowore speaks on allegedly detained EndSARS protesters, security forces integrity
Sowore speaks on allegedly detained EndSARS protesters, security forces integrity
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00:00There is a list of certain individuals, such as protesters, who are allegedly still being
00:05held by security forces.
00:07Also, human rights activist, Jumon Sonyaolu, reportedly recently gained his freedom from
00:12police custody, just days after his whereabouts became unknown.
00:16Recall that former Senator Shea Husoni, during the 2024 Democracy Day dinner in Abuja, said
00:22that some protesters are still being detained.
00:25Meanwhile, in a statement by the police spokesperson, Onumiu Adejobi, he said that the former senator's
00:31claims were misleading and should be disregarded.
00:34So today we are engaging in the discussion circulating the least about the protestors
00:40in prison and the release of Jumon Sonyaolu and what this means to the integrity of the
00:44DSS, the Nigerian police force and the Nigerian judiciary at large.
00:49We are joined by human rights activist and former presidential candidate, Omoyele Shouwere,
00:54who will be engaging in the discussion of all this.
00:56Thank you for joining us today.
00:58So could you give us an overview of the situation surrounding this detainment, particularly
01:04of Jumon Sonyaolu?
01:06It is very wrong to claim that Jumon was arrested.
01:11He was kidnapped around the shop right area of Lagos and taken into custody in Komnikado.
01:24It is believed that the federal government sent a team from Abuja comprising of DSS and
01:30police to ensure that he was kidnapped before the day of the protest, June 12th protest.
01:37So for three days, we didn't know his whereabouts.
01:41The police was the first to deny and then the DSS later denied.
01:45Through our own intelligence networks, we found out that after he was kidnapped, they
01:52took him to the office of the police commissioner in Lagos, where he was first thoroughly beaten
02:02right inside the office of the commissioner of police before he was then taken into detention
02:08for three days.
02:10When we reached out to all the agencies, they all denied until our networks gave us the
02:22real situation of things that we contacted.
02:24I personally called the commissioner of police in Lagos, who when I first called him feigned
02:29ignorance.
02:30He said, oh, I don't know what happened and let me check, let me check.
02:35And then when pressure came upon them, he then directed the person who they said we
02:42should bring to be shot, he directed him to their chief intelligence officer, one ACP
02:50at the headquarters in Nkerja.
02:52And that's how we got Juwan freed three days later.
02:57How about the answers on protesters that are allegedly still being in custody too?
03:02Well, this has been since 2020, they have kept those guys in custody.
03:07There's not only in Lagos, in Ibadan.
03:11We got a lot of them out of detention, but in Lagos, the most notorious center of repression
03:18against the peaceful protesters, where a lot of denials has happened and continues to happen.
03:27They still have these guys in detention.
03:31So it is recently that some more of them from Ikoi prison sent out a distress notice
03:39that they are all protesters who have been detained since 2020.
03:43We're talking about almost four years now of illegal detention, and I doubt that they
03:50will take them before any judge for trial.
03:53I doubt it.
03:55It should be clear to you as journalists that the Lagos axis of evil have always denied
04:05their involvement in the ETSAS crimes.
04:10They denied that they were not the ones who removed the camera, so that the camera was
04:17not removed on that day, so as to avoid identifying the soldiers that came.
04:22They denied that they killed people at Lekki toll gates.
04:27They have denied every facet of the ETSAS massacre at Lekki toll gates.
04:36So why would you be surprised that they are denying that they have people in detention
04:39since 2020?
04:42This has been the method from the killings till now.
04:46There has been a denial, but there is a list that points in the contrary.
04:53What does this say about their integrity?
04:56What does this say about the credibility of that Nigerian police force as a governmental
05:02institution?
05:03The Nigerian police force has never, never had credibility, not in my lifetime.
05:08They've never been regarded as a government agency of dignity, credibility or infallibility.
05:18They have always, always been dishonest.
05:21They have always been dishonest.
05:22The police has always been a dishonest government agency in Nigeria.
05:26I think it was in their DNA from the day they were set up.
05:30The more important issue is also that the judges, I'm talking about Judiciary now, have
05:34become also involved in this clear atrocities of sending people to prison for useless offenses.
05:42When I say useless offenses, you know what I'm not speaking in legal terms.
05:45I'm talking about offenses that do not require for anybody to be sent to prison.
05:50You know how now they are doing cybercrime offenses where even journalists are arrested
05:57and detained for days, if not weeks.
06:00And then they will go and shop for judges, typically they get magistrate court judges
06:06or magistrates who in the first place don't have jurisdiction over the matter.
06:12But they will send you to prison and say, oh, you know, why we send your file to the
06:17DPP or the federal high court, stay in prison.
06:21This is how our prisons got congested.
06:25Judges must be told in clear terms by the administrators, the chief judges, you know,
06:30the CJN, that you cannot send somebody to prison over a frivolous matter.
06:37Matter is like one thing, you understand, which doesn't even exist or politically motivated
06:44issues like all this idea of arresting people for cybercrime, you know, as long as you keep
06:53sending people to prison or in some cases, police going to obtain detention warrants.
06:58How do you obtain detention warrants for 14 days in a matter that when, even sometimes
07:03when it is resolved, the person accused of the matter may not spend 14 days in jail.
07:07So what you find out that our police are doing in conjunction with the judiciary, the decadent
07:14members of the judiciary, is that they are trying to obtain punishment before trial.
07:19Let's talk about what your movement, the Revolution Now movement, the Take It Back movement, what
07:25have you done as a body to see to the release of these anti-SARS protestors that are still
07:32in detainment?
07:33I led the delegation, I led the protest to the airport and we did graffiti at the airport
07:39at the National Assembly and that also led to some arrests.
07:43It was after all that had happened that the Take It Back movement started doing research
07:52to ensure that nobody was left behind.
07:54I found out there were still a lot of people in SARS and we started getting them bailed out.
08:00Getting them bailed out.
08:02Up to last year, we bailed out a lot of them.
08:06But we weren't aware of this particular group until recently and we kept, we have started
08:12again to campaign for their release.
08:19In fact, it was part of that that led Shiv Soni to bring it to Tinubu's attention on
08:26June 11th at the dinner they said they had for former pro-democracy activists at the
08:32Presidential Villa.
08:34And then the next day, or three days later, the police denied it.
08:37But if you look at the internet, we have relisted, that is TIB now, and Revolution Now members,
08:45have relisted the names and, you know, we started the campaign for their release.
08:52You as an advocate, and you've been making certain moves towards the release of these
09:00protesters that are still being detained, what are some of the challenges you have faced?
09:06Could you run us through some of these challenges and how you intend to, what you intend to
09:12do about them?
09:13The biggest of them is institutional dishonesty that we have discussed earlier.
09:19The fact that the police are denying that these individuals were arrested in 2020 for
09:27incest offenses is the biggest challenge.
09:30The second challenge, which is not only a challenge, but a heartbreak, is all those
09:39Nsas, Conosas, as I like to call them, the big names that came around, the publicity,
09:46PR people, the, you know, the stars who made huge amounts of money, who made huge amounts
10:01of PR acreage, huge amount of public goodwill, followership in 2020, who have now gone silent
10:13over this matter, who no longer care about all these innocent persons who came out truthfully,
10:22genuinely, doing Nsas to fight, only to be abandoned by them.
10:27This discussion would be complete if we do not talk about how the federal government
10:32should come in this.
10:33Yeah, the Nigerian police force has its own side of it.
10:38Your organization as an advocacy institution has its own side of it.
10:43Where do you want the federal government to come in in this?
10:45Where do you want the administration of President Bola Tinubu to come in in this discussion?
10:49The sad part, which is important, is that it's Nsas massacre, or the atrocities committed
10:57by the police, the army against Nsas, has Bola Tinubu's footprints all over it, in
11:06premature.
11:07How do you mean?
11:08All over.
11:09How do you mean?
11:10Considering that he was alleged, not alleged at this point, known, to have ties to the
11:18tollgate itself.
11:19In fact, his son, Sheyit, is the person who handles all the contracts around the tollgates,
11:27all the contracts, with regards to placing billboards and all that.
11:35And they were the ones who allegedly, who when they removed the video evidence there,
11:45and it's also their political party, the APC, that was in power at that time.
11:49So they carried out this atrocity as a political party.
11:51And you remember the attempt to deceive the public about Nsas when, what is it called,
11:59the former governor of Lagos said he went there, Pashola, and pretended that he found
12:04a video recorder, and asked somebody to take it.
12:09Have you asked yourself why we didn't get anything from that video recorder today?
12:14So this tells you that they were all involved in carrying out the atrocities, in covering
12:23up the atrocities.
12:24So I do not expect the Nsas victims to get justice under the Tinumbo regime because he
12:33was complicit himself in the Nsas atrocities.
12:39Thank you very much, Mr. Shugure.
12:40I really appreciate how you've been able to do justice to all of my questions.
12:43Thank you very much.
12:44Have a nice day.
12:45And this is it.
12:46We shall wrap up the discussion for today.
12:47For more updates, do visit our official website at Guardian.ng, or follow us on all our social
12:52media platforms at Guardian Nigeria.
12:54Khaled Ibada is my name.
12:56Bye for now.