The Abuja Division of the Federal High Court on Monday discharged Omoyele Sowore and Olawale Bakare of an alleged treasonable felony charge by former President Muhammadu Buhari’s regime.
In a ruling, Justice Emeka Nwite struck out the matter after A.R. Tahir, the counsel for the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF), Lateef Fagbemi, withdrew the charge.
“In view of the application made by the Honourable Attorney-General of the Federation, this charge, between the Federal Republic of Nigeria and Omoyele Sowore and another, is hereby struck out and the defendants discharged,” he declared.
Nwite ordered the State Security Service (SSS) to immediately release three phones and N10,000 seized from Mr Sowore during his arrest. He equally ordered that Mr Sowore’s international passport be released.
The judge also ordered the SSS to release a phone belonging to Mr Bakare, and N1,500 confiscated from him during his arrest.
The orders followed an application by a lawyer to Messrs Sowore and Bakare, Femi Falana (SAN), to the effect.
Messrs Sowore and Bakare (first and third defendants) were arraigned before Justice Ijeoma Ojukwu in 2019 before the matter was reassigned to Mr Nwite.
The federal government had dragged them to court on allegations of treason and attempts to overthrow the former Buhari regime.
When the matter was called, Ms Tahir, an assistant chief state counsel from the Federal Ministry of Justice, informed the court that she had a notice of discontinuance of the case dated February 14 but filed February 15 before the court.
Tahir said the application was filed pursuant to the powers conferred on the AGF in section 174(1), Paragraph C of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) and section 107(1) of Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA), 2015.
The lawyer, who said that presently, a hearing in the matter was yet to commence, urged the court to strike out the charge. But Mr Falana disagreed with Ms Tahir’s submission.
Mr Falana, who argued that contrary to her submission, the matter had been partly heard, prayed the court to dismiss the case.
The senior lawyer reminded that before the matter was reassigned to Justice Nwite, the first prosecution witness had been taken before Justice Ojukwu.
“My learned friend did not remember then. It was Mr Hassan Liman that was prosecuting the matter. To that extent, the matter ought to be dismissed,” he added.
Mr Falana, however, commended the AGF and Minister of Justice for taking the bold step.