Why Have Sowore’s Sureties Not Come Forward? By Umar Sa’ad Hassan

There was an air of certitude to the DSS’ call for Omoyele
Sowore’s sureties to come and pick him up.

The Buhari administration has never hidden its intention to hold
onto him and one ordinarily would expect his lawyers,former PDP
youth leader and activist, Deji Adeyanju and others that went to
pick him up to begrudgingly be told so.But the DSS instead came to
the media to relay its ‘predicament’.

By the time its spokesperson, Peter Afunanya said they couldn’t
release him to a mob and asked “What if he got hit by a car?”, my
suspicions had reached a crescendo.The man appeared to know those
sureties won’t come forward and was using that to taunt Sowore’s
people.

Everyone supporting Sowore believes he is being punished for
nothing other than wanting the best for his country and it is
mind-boggling that when the power to free the man finally leaves
Buhari and his DSS, those clamoring for his release duck and refuse
to at the very least,urge his sureties to visit the DSS.You can’t
be screaming ‘Free Sowore’ when you haven’t gotten his sureties to
visit the DSS and shut down the one excuse they so confidently put
forth.

The first thing the DSS said was that ‘no one came to pick him
up’ and now they have said ‘he will only be handed to
sureties’.While it is perfectly understood that the Buhari
administration has over the last 4 years and 6 months, exhibited an
unprecedented disregard for the rule of law,it has never publicly
promised to release a person upon the fulfillment of a condition
and failed. It at least deserves the benefit of the doubt.

To be realistic, no sane person would insist on fighting the
propriety of the authorities insisting he must be handed over to
sureties instead of rescuing him from detention.So what really is
the problem; are Sowore’s sureties high profile politicians or
businessmen that wouldn’t want to risk offending Buhari?. Well, the
odds are he knew their identities from the very moment they
presented themselves to the court.Were they threatened?.

As part of Sowore’s bail conditions, he was to deposit the sum
of N50M to the court. Sowore may not be poor but that is a hefty
sum for a man like him. Okay, say he scrapped that up,one also has
to consider that for his co-accused, the lesser known and affluent
Olawale ‘Mandate’ Bakare to fulfill his (which he did),he was
required to put forth N20M.

That is N70M altogether.
It’s more probable than not that someone ‘important’ sympathized
with them.Maybe more than one. Could it be that these same
sympathizers stood as sureties and were subsequently arm-twisted
into abandoning him?. Sowore is up against the government of the
federal republic and his adversary is in a position to issue potent
threats to just about any politician or businessman in this country
rich enough to cough out that much for someone else’s bail.

Just one of the sureties being absent would automatically mean
they fall short of the DSS’ condition of release.

Something is not right and that Sowore’s people haven’t fixed a
date to accompany his sureties to the DSS office amidst much
fanfare more than anything suggests the core members of his
movement have conceded to the wishes of the surety/sureties and are
appreciative enough of their efforts not to publicize their
identity/identities.

Sowore’s lawyer,Femi Falana has been the most vocal of his camp
and in as much as his dedication to fighting injustice is most
commendable,right now he should only be heard bemoaning the refusal
of the DSS to hand over Sowore despite his sureties making
themselves available and not that Justice Ojukwu’s order did not
specify that he be handed to those that will guarantee his presence
in court.

In as much as he is saying the truth,the DSS would sell itself
as taking precautionary measures in the name of national security
and also ask why if he was such a fan of ‘strict sense’,he didn’t
insist on transferring Sowore to either the Suleja or Kuje Prisons
from the cozy DSS detention facility he chose to stay when the
court ordered him to be moved to either.
Enough of the ‘Free Sowore’ cries,the needful at the moment is
addressing head-on why Sowore’s sureties have not come forward to
put him out of his misery.That is the right thing to do.

Umar Sa’ad Hassan is based in Kano ,[email protected]_100 , [email protected]^[1][2]