Pat Stevens/
The Nigeria Police Force has defended its controversial re-arrest of activist and publisher, Omoyele Sowore, within the premises of the Kuje Magistrates’ Court in Abuja, insisting that the action was lawful and backed by a valid remand warrant issued by the court.
Force Public Relations Officer, CSP Benjamin Hundeyin, shared a copy of the warrant on his verified X handle on Friday, stating that Sowore was not taken away on a fresh charge, as widely reported, but remanded in line with the court’s order pending the fulfilment of his bail conditions.
In the document he posted, signed by the Chief Magistrate of the Kuje Chief Magistrate Court, Sowore was ordered to be remanded at the Kuje Correctional Centre “pending when he meets his bail conditions.”
Hundeyin wrote, “Your story that he was arrested on a fresh charge and whisked away to Kuje Prison to be arraigned on Monday is procedurally incorrect. A person arrested on a fresh charge cannot be taken straight to prison. No prison will accept such a person without a remand warrant duly issued by a competent court. He was taken to prison as instructed on the attached remand warrant pending when he meets his bail conditions, nothing more.”
Responding to widespread criticism over the manner of the arrest, during which Sowore’s lawyer alleged that he was injured, Hundeyin further justified the conduct of the officers, stressing that the police were within their legal powers to use reasonable force.
“Except we want to be mischievous, we all know that once court grants a suspect bail, it comes with the caveat that until the bail conditions are met, the suspect remains in custody,” he wrote.
“Where it is clearly spelt out on the remand warrant that the suspect be remanded in a correctional facility (not police custody), it is the duty of the police to hand over the suspect to the Nigeria Correctional Service who would then process his bail conditions. This has always been the practice. Why should this be different?”
Hundeyin added, “As law enforcement officers, we are empowered by law to employ commensurate force to get our mandate achieved.”
The statement comes amid growing public outrage over the police’s handling of the arrest, which occurred shortly after Sowore and 13 others, including the brother and lawyer of detained IPOB leader Nnamdi Kanu, were granted bail by the same court.
Sowore’s legal team alleged that the activist sustained injuries when police officers moved to re-arrest him within the court premises, describing the action as “an assault on the sanctity of the judiciary.”
While rights groups have called for an investigation into the incident, the police maintain that their actions were strictly in line with the court’s order and procedural law.
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