Sahara Reporters Publisher Arrested in Lagos

Ranti Kayode/

In what appears like a dog eat dog situation, radical online publisher of Sahara Reporters, Omoyele Sowore, was arrested in Lagos today after a professional colleague reported him to the police.
Sowore, who is based in the U.S., has been a thorn in the flesh of people in power in Nigeria, and security agencies have always been on the lookout for him.
Newsmakers learnt that Sowore was arrested by policemen from Area ‘F’ Command Headquarters, Ikeja, who claimed they were acting on a petition from another Nigerian journalist, Lekan Fatodu.

Fatodu, who is based in London, is the publisher of CheckOut Magazine.
According to the police, he had alleged in his petition that Sowore was threatening his life.

He also allegedly accused him of blackmail.
Fatodu later celebrated Sowore’s arrest on his Facebook page.
He stated, “BREAKING! I just got Sowore Omoyele of Saharareporters arrested for criminal defamation and blackmail and threat to my life and career. I’m sure you guys will remember how Sowore lied against me that I was used as a front to receive 1.7 billion naira of the National Security funds. My refusal to agree to Sowore’s criminal demands and cut from the fictitious money made him to viciously attack my personality on his website. And imagine this is someone I’ve known and I’ve been assisting for almost 20 years. We are still at the police station, and hopefully we be going to the court tomm. More details later.”
Lagos police spokesperson, Dolapo Badmos confirmed that Sowore was in police custody.
She said, “He was arrested this evening over threat to life and blackmail. Investigation is still going on.”

 

Fatodu allegedly mentioned in his petition that Sowore published a story on alleged money laundering on him. The publication according to him, also accused him of assisting politicians to move money out of the country.
As at 7:30 pm, Sowore was still being quizzed.

Sowore also shared his experience in posts and a video on Facebook.

Operatives of the Directorate of State Services (DSS) recently stormed Sowore’s family home at Ese-Odo, in Ondo State and arrested his brother during the last gubernatorial election.

Watch the video post here: https://www.facebook.com/OSowore?fref=ts

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