A group of students in Ondo State have taken to the streets to protest the continued detention of the pro-democracy activist and Publisher of SaharaReporters, Omoyele Sowore, by the Department of State Services.
The students, under the platform of the National Association of Kiribo Students, said that the continued detention of Sowore should be rejected by all lovers of Nigeria.
The protesters marched all the way to Idepe Town under Okitipupa Local Government Area of the state, chanting songs of solidarity and calling for the immediate release of Sowore, who had made scholarship offers available to them over the years.
According to the students, the recent declaration of Sowore and Olawale Bakare as “prisoners of conscience” by Amnesty International, has showed that the pro-democracy activist was being recognised globally as one of the few Africans that have demonstrated doggedness.
Spokesperson for the protesting students, Samuel Irinyemi, told SaharaReporters that many of them benefiting from Sowore’s scholarship programme had continued to feel his continued detention.
He called on President Muhammadu Buhari to obey court orders by mandating the security agency to release Sowore to his family.
Irinyemi, “We are just a few of the many students benefiting directly from Omoyele Sowore’s scholarship foundation in Ondo State.
“We are sad that our brother and great benefactor was arrested and had since been detained by the DSS over frivolous charges. Sowore is not a criminal because we know his history very well.
“This is a man that placed many of us on scholarship with his personal money and made it possible for us to have education.
“I have been benefiting from his kind gesture for close to five years now.
“So, we are not happy about his continued detention despite court orders granting his release.
“We are pleading with President Buhari to release Sowore from the detention of the DSS.
“Sowore that we know is a freedom fighter and he means well for Nigeria as a country.”
Sowore was arrested in Lagos on August 3, 2019 for calling on Nigerians to take to the streets in peaceful demonstrations to demand a better country from the administration of President Buhari.
The government is accusing him of insulting Buhari and planning to topple his regime through the planned protests.
Despite two orders by the Federal High Court, Abuja, directing the DSS to release him on bail since that period, the activist has remained in government detention, attracting condemnation from around the world.
