Activist, Omoyele Sowore, has accused security agents of mobilising thugs with the intention of attacking him at the Court of Appeal on Tuesday in order to prevent him from attending his court case.
Sowore, who said he was attacked by hoodlums bearing dangerous weapons on two different occasions, also accused security agents of looking on while the attack lasted.
The Sahara Reporters publisher added that efforts to get justice on the matter proved abortive.
This was contained in an open letter to the President Muhammadu Buhari, signed by Sowore’s lawyer, Tope Temokun, on Monday.
The letter read in part, “On Tuesday, October 21, 2021, while our client was on the premises of the Federal High Court, Abuja to observe and witness the trial of Nnamdi Kanu, he was attacked by some men, armed with petrol bombs and other lethal weapons, who alighted, with no caution, from a vehicle with registration number BWR 812 KM that had conveyed them down to the court.
“Our client informed us that he was in the middle of officers of the Nigeria Police Force and operatives of the DSS on the premises of the Federal High Court, Abuja, when these suspected sponsored thugs launched the attack on him.
“Following this incident, petitions dated October 25, 2021 and October 29, 2021 were submitted to the Police Service Commission and the Inspector-General of Police on October 28, 2021 and October 29 respectively complaining about this incident and the complicity of the security agents particularly the police officers present at the scene, led by one CSP Abdullahi Hassan, the DPO of the Federal Secretariat Police Station, Abuja.”
He noted that copies of the petitions were sent to Amb. Mary Beth Leonard, United States Ambassador to Nigeria and Ambassador Keti Karlsen, the European Union Ambassador to Nigeria.
According to the letter, while the Police Service Commission has not responded to the petition, an invitation was sent to Sowore from the IGP X-Squad Abuja that the IG had directed that the petition be investigated.
“On November 22, 2021 we were at the office of the IGP X-Squad where our client, Mr. Omoyele Sowore gave his statement to the police on the attack on him at the court premises and the complicity of the security agents present.
“While investigation on this serious matter is supposed to be ongoing or believed to be ongoing, our client briefed us that on December 2, 2021, armed thugs wielding dangerous weapons attacked him on the premises of the Federal High Court Abuja and damaged his vehicle while he narrowly escaped being assassinated by these thugs he believed were mobilized to the court by the DSS working in collusion with some police units,” the letter read.
Sowore’s lawyer said his client would be going to court on Tuesday to challenge the stringent bail conditions given to him by the Federal High Court.
He, however, said, “Information at our client’s disposal this minute is that the security agents have mobilised thugs to be conveyed to the Court of Appeal tomorrow to attack him to prevent him from having his day in court.”
