Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu yesterday clarifies the issues that surround the arrest and released of Omoyele Sowore.
Shehu said the released of the detained convener of Revolution Now Movement, Omoyele Sowore, had nothing to do with his journalism practice.
Mallam Shehu in Abuja stated that the President Muhammadu Buhari – led government believes strictly in observing the rule of law but must safeguard public security and will not allow trouble makers to incite the public and cause a breakdown of law and order.
He said: ‘The Presidency wishes to clarify the release on bail, of the Presidential Candidate of the African Action Congress in the February 2019 elections, Omoyele Sowore. ‘ Some international news outlets have mistakenly been describing his release as that of a journalist.
“For the avoidance of doubt, the Buhari administration has never, since coming into office in 2015, detained a journalist, seized copies of newspapers or shut down a medium of information.
” Sowore called for a revolution to overthrow the democratically elected government of Nigeria. He did so on television, and from a privileged position as the owner of a widely read digital newspaper run from the United States of America.
” He founded an organisation, Revolution Now, to launch, in their own words, “Days of Rage”, with the publicized purpose of fomenting mass civil unrest and the elected administration’s overthrow.
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” No government will allow anybody to openly call for destabilization in the country and do nothing.
” The government believes strictly in observing the rule of law but must safeguard public security and will not allow trouble makers to incite the public and cause a breakdown of law and order.”
