Nobel Laureate, Prof Wole Soyinka, has condemned the charges of treason filed against publisher of Sahara Reporters, Omoyele Sowore, by the Federal Government.
In a statement released on Saturday night, the 85-year-old said his immediate reaction to the charges by the President Muhammadu Buhari-led government was to dismiss it as fake news.
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The statement reads: “This is utterly depressing news. So, the Sowore affair has moved beyond harassment and taken on a sinister direction. Outside the country where I happened to be engaged at the moment, I can testify that the immediate reaction around me was to dismiss this as yet another grotesque product of Fake News, of which Nigerians have become the greatest practitioners. I confess that I also joined in this school of thought — at the start.
“Further checks have however confirmed that this government has indeed attained an unprecedented level of paranoia. I do not believe that the Justice department itself believes in these improbable charges, as formally publicised. So, once again, we inscribe in our annals another season of treasonable felony, History still guards some lessons we have yet to digest, much less from which to learn.
“Welcome to the Club, Mr. Omoyele Sowore.”
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The Federal Government had on Friday filed seven counts of treasonable felony and money laundering against Sowore.
The charges were signed on behalf of the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN), by Aminu Alilu, a chief state counsel in the Department of Public Prosecutions of the Federation, Federal Ministry of Justice.
They were filed a day before the expiration of the detention order of the Federal High Court in Abuja permitting the Department of State Services (DSS) to keep the activist for 45 days.
Sowore, a candidate in the February 2019 presidential election, was charged along with Olawale Bakare, also known as Mandate.
