Nigerian Police Release Activist, Sowore, AIT Reporter After Illegal Arrest, Assault
Omoyele Sowore, a human rights campaigner and Amnesty International-designated Prisoner of Conscience, has been released by the Nigerian Police Force.
The police had illegally detained Sowore and Dickson Iroegbu, a journalist with the African Independent Television (AIT), at the Federal High Court in Abuja on Monday.
The activist was in Abuja to see the trials of Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), as well as a case involving five #BuhariMustGo demonstrators arrested by the Department of State Services at Dunamis International Gospel Centre in Abuja (DSS).
NEWS DIRECT gathered that the activist was brutalised during his arrest and taken to the Federal Secretariat police station.
Sowore was however released after his arrest sparked outrage on social media, with many Nigerians demanding his swift and unconditional release from detention.
The Muhammadu Buhari-led Nigerian government had earlier barred some media organisations from covering the trial of the Kanu.
It also named only 10 media houses approved to cover the trial.
The media organisations include the TV station and newspaper belonging to the national leader of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu, TVC, and The Nation respectively; Premium Times, Daily Independent, The Herald, NTA, AIT, News Agency of Nigeria, and Channels TV.
