PDP Condemns Invasion Of Court, Sowore’s Rearrest

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has lambasted the Department of State Services (DSS) for invading the Federal High Court to arrest activist and journalist, Omoyele Sowore.

Naija News reports that the Department of State Services (DSS) on Thursday night had released Sowore after spending 124 days in detention.

This was following a court ruling ordering DSS to release him in the next 24 hours.

However, the DSS on Friday morning re-arrested Sowore in the premises of the Federal High court, Abuja.

Reacting in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbodiyan, the PDP said the invasion confirmed that Nigeria, under the President Muhammadu Buhari, is sliding into a dictatorship.

The party said: “Today (yesterday), the world watched with shock as operatives of the Presidency-controlled DSS, in a most horrific manner, swooped on the court, held the judiciary to ransom, disrupted proceedings, scared away the judge, chased away lawyers and journalists, attacked and re-arrested persons standing trial within the precincts of the court, in a manner that can only be obtainable in Idi Amin’s Uganda.

“The invasion is in a forceful suspension of our constitutional order and a further battering of the judiciary, which points to emerging lawlessness that can only find space in a military regime.

“Without prejudice to the charge against the Convener of the “Revolution Now” movement, Mr. Omoyele Sowore, the PDP holds that, in a normal democracy, it is the duty of the court to determine the fate of an accused, according to the laws and not a resort to brute force by the government to silence persons with dissenting voices.

“Our party notes that such a violation, as embarrassingly witnessed in the Abuja court this weekend, is a direct invitation to anarchy and a huge threat to the unity, peace, stability and corporate existence of our nation and the safety of our citizens.

“Indeed, this is not the Nigeria our citizens yearn for and it is imperative to restate that Nigeria, under the Buhari Presidency, is fast sliding into a dark country where laws are suspended, the judiciary is assaulted and citizens are stripped of their fundamental rights.”

PDP urged well-meaning Nigerians and the “international community to call the Buhari Presidency to order before its actions derail our nation and trigger a breakdown of law and order in the land.“