Why Buhari Govt Is Afraid Of Sowore – Agba Jalingo

Human Rights activist, Agba Jalingo, says the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration is afraid of popular journalist Omoyele Sowore.

Naija News had reported that a Magistrate Court in Abuja on Tuesday remanded Sowore and four other activists in Kuje Prison pending the ruling on their bail application on Friday.

The publisher of Sahara Reporters and four others were arrested in Abuja on New Year’s Eve for holding a protest against bad governance.

But in an interview with The PUNCH, Jalingo said the Buhari government is afraid of Sowore due to his popularity and actions.

He also condemned the federal government for arresting and reportedly maltreating Sowore for no just reason.

The journalist alleged that the police arrested Sowore and kept him longer than the statutory number of days and still could not bring up a charge.

Jalingo opined the government harasses innocent citizens who demand a better Nigeria but negotiates with Boko Haram members and bandits who slaughter scores of Nigerians at will.

He said prison officials moved Sowore from the Kuje prison to police custody on Tuesday because they were afraid he would incite other inmates at the facility.

The activist, however, noted that Sowore is not the problem of Nigeria.

Jalingo said, “They arrested him (Sowore) and kept him longer than the statutory number of days and still could not bring up a charge. They are just harassing him just like they have been harassing all of us.

“The system is afraid of Sowore. If not so, why are they harassing him? Boko Haram is there, bandits are there and they are negotiating with them. These people are killing up and down but the government is negotiating with them, they are granting them compensations and amnesty. Then, you keep dragging a man that you simply don’t have anything to hold against every day.

“All of us have been shouting, ‘Free Sowore, Free Sowore’, but Sowore is not worried where he is.

“When they took him to Kuje, the authorities in Kuje rejected him because they are afraid that he is going to revolutionarise other inmates. So they protested, they didn’t want to admit him. Even when I was in Afokang Prison in Calabar, it was the same thing because of the way the other prisoners were coming to listen to me. Keeping Sowore in the prison will cause more problems for them. That is why today, the court said they should keep him in police custody.”