Court Varies Sowore’s Bail Condition … Judge Expresses Concern No One is Willing to Stand as Surety

Pat Stevens/

A federal high court in Abuja today partially reviewed the conditions of the bail granted to Omoyele Sowore, convener of the #RevolutionNow protest.

The trial judge, Ijeoma Ojukwu, set aside the previous order on Sowore’s surety depositing N50m with the court.

She however expressed her concern that no one was willing to stand as surety for the activist despite his pedigree as contained in the affidavit in support of his application.

The judge said: “Considering the pedigree of the first defendant as observed in his application, it is rather unfortunate that no one is willing to stand as his surety on those terms.

“On the other hand, it creates an assumption that despite the pedigree of the first defendant, none of his best associates is willing to stand for him. This poses a cause for concern.”

She explained that bail sum is not required to be deposited but when a court makes an order for security, the secure money is later returned to the owner (surety).

The activist has been in custody of the Department of State Services (DSS) since August 3 when he was arrested in Lagos.

Femi Falana, Sowore’s counsel, had approached the court seeking a variation to the previous bail conditions which he said could not be met.

Ojukwu reviewed Sowore’s bail conditions and set aside the previous order which directed one of Sowore’s surety to deposit N50m.

She also reduced the bail sum of Olawale Bakare, the second defendant, to N30m instead of the initial N50m.

However, she refused to vary all the other conditions for bail.

Among the other conditions of the for bail are two sureties who must be resident in Abuja and have landed properties within the federal capital territory (FCT).

The court had held that the sureties must deposit original documents of those properties in the court registry.

The judge barred him from travelling outside Abuja and also stopped him from addressing any rally.

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