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Sowore to DSS: I’ve never visited Dubai, #RevolutionNow protests not coup plan

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The convener of #RevolutionNow protests, Omoyele Sowore, on Tuesday, disputed the allegation by the Department of State Service that he met severally with “foreign collaborators” in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, and other countries, on how to topple the President Muhammadu Buhari government.

He also debunked the agency’s allegation that he received “millions of dollars” from the alleged collaborators at the meetings to sponsor widespread attacks on Nigeria with a view toppling the Nigerian government.

Sowore, the publisher of Sahara Reporters and presidential candidate in the last poll, said contrary to the DSS’s claims, he had never visited Dubai or any of the UAE cities.

He said he had never received any money from any person or organisations for the purpose of toppling the government, adding that had willingly provided his local and foreign banks’ account details for the DSS.

He also said he never planned a coup as claimed by the DSS, but only mobilised Nigerians “to address the crises of corruption, maladministration, mismanagement of the economy and insecurity”.

In a veiled reference to President Muhammadu Buhari, Sowore stated that he “is not a coup plotter like the military officers who toppled elected governments in Nigeria in January 1966 and December 1983 and who were never arrested and prosecuted by the Federal government”.

The activist who has been in DSS custody since August 2, 2019, said he had never been involved in any terrorist activity and “there is no evidence whatsoever linking him to any terrorist activity” as alleged by the DSS.

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He made these rebuttals in a “further affidavit” filed on Tuesday before the Federal High Court in Abuja in support of his motion challenging the order for his detention which the court issued at the instance of the DSS on August 8, 2019.

The DSS, had in a counter-affidavit filed on August 16, 2019, to oppose Sowore’s motion, claiming, among others, that “the respondent held series of meetings with some foreign collaborators outside Nigeria including Dubai where millions of dollars were given to him to sponsor widespread attacks on Nigeria with a view to violently removing the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and freeing Ibrahim Yaqub El-Zakzaky (Sheikh).”

Sowore debunked the security agency’s claims in his “further affidavit” deposed to on his behalf by one of his lawyers, Mr. Marshall Abubakar.

Abubakar stated,

“That contrary to the deposition in Paragraph 4 (xiv) of the counter-affidavit, the Respondent / Applicant has never visited Dubai or any of the UAE cities in his life and he has never received any money from any individual, group or organisation for the purpose of removing the President or freeing any person through any unlawful means or for any other unlawful purpose whatsoever.

“That he has willingly availed the Applicant/Respondent of his local and foreign banks’ account details. In the course of the said investigative interviews of the 7th and 8th August, 2019, officials of the Applicant/Respondent told him that they could not believe that he does not have millions of Naira in his accounts.”

Sowore was arrested on August 2, 2019 by the operatives of the DSS ahead his planned revolution protests scheduled to take place on August 5.

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The security agency on August 8, obtained an order of Justice Taiwo Taiwo Federal High Court in Abuja permitting it to keep Sowore for 45 days.

On August 9, Sowore, through his lawyer, Mr. Femi Falana (SAN), filed an application requesting the court to vacate the detention order on the grounds that it breached his fundamental rights and amounted to legalising the illegality of his detention.

But the DSS, through its counter-affidavit deposed to by one of its lawyers, Godwin Agbadua, and filed on August 16, 2019, insisted that Sowore was planning a coup with his planned protest.

Responding through the affidavit deposed to by Abubakar of Falana’s law firm on Tuesday, Sowore said he never planned a coup, but “mobilised the Nigerian people including students and youths, workers, market women and other oppressed people to influence the federal government, the 36 state governments and 774 local governments to address the crises of corruption, maladministration, mismanagement of the economy and insecurity.”

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Sowore noted that contrary to its promise

“to create one million jobs per annum, build one million houses per annum, end epileptic supply of electricity, end corruption and impunity and restructure the country, end insecurity and manage the economy in the interest of the Nigerian people”, the Muhammadu Buhari administration not only failed to address the problem but “has compounded them in a manner that majority of Nigerians are frustrated”.

On the alleged link to the Islamic Movement in Nigeria, recently proscribed by the Federal Government, he said, he only called on the Federal Government of Nigeria to obey the court order and release the said Sheikh Ibraheem El Zakzaky (leader of IMN) and his wife from custody”.

He noted that his meeting with the leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu, in the United States of America had nothing to do with terrorism or coup plotting.

Urging the court to order his release from custody, he said “he needs treatment on his ankle which was seriously strained during the midnight invasion of his abode on the said August 2, 2019”, by DSS operatives.

Meanwhile, the Justice Nkeonye Maha has fixed Wednesday for the hearing of the activist’s application.

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