Sowore, Bakare pleads not guilty to FG’s 7-count charge
Convener of the RevolutionNow Protest, Mr Omoyele Sowore, and his co-defendant, Olawale Bakare have pleaded not guilty to Federal government seven-count charges of treasonable felony and other sundry offences instituted against them.
Sowore, who was arraigned in the court on Monday, mounted the dock alongside his co-defendant, Olawale Adebayo Bakare (aka Mandate) and declined to enter their plea to the seven-count charge the Federal Government preferred against them.
Sowore further lamented that he was not duly served with a copy of the charge against him, challenging their planned arraignment, when the DSS failed to comply with an order the court made for his immediate release.
Sowore and Bakare were arraigned before Justice Ijeoma Ojuwku of the Federal High Court in Abuja.
The judge earlier dismissed the objection of the defendants’ lawyer, Adeyinka Olumide-Fusika (SAN), to the scheduled arraignment.
Sowore who addressed the court through his lawyer, Mr. Olumide Fusika, SAN, decried that it was as an act of lawlessness by the security agency which he said refused to obey the directive of the same court that granted it leave to detain him for 45 days.
Fusika told the court that Sowore’s lead counsel, Mr. Femi Falana, SAN, got to know about the arraignment from reports in the Newspaper, despite the fact that he was at the office of the DSS till 10pm on Sunday.
The punch reports that Olumide-Fusika had maintained that the arraignment should not be allowed to go on on the grounds that the Department of State Services, which has been keeping him in custody since August 3, 2019, had not allowed the defendants to consult with their lawyer after the charges were filed.
Meanwhile, FG’s lawyer, Mr. Hassan Liman, SAN, told the court that the defendants were duly served with the charge on September 20.
Liman argued that the high court only ordered that Sowore should be released until his arraignment. He argued that the release order has elapsed since the defendants have been brought before the court for arraignment. Besides, the prosecution contended that the charge was already served on the defendants before the court ordered Sowore’s release on September 24.
