The Inspector-General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, has discreetly directed police investigators to detain rights activist Omoyele Sowore for at least two weeks, senior officers familiar with the development told Peoples Gazette.
Loading ...Two top-ranking police sources confirmed to The Gazette that the Force Intelligence Department is working urgently to secure an ex parte order from an Abuja court to keep Mr Sowore in custody beyond the standard 48-hour window. The move, the sources said, is being justified on the grounds of “ongoing investigation.”
“We’ve been directed from the very top not to release him (Sowore) this week, and it is not certain that he would be released next week too,” a senior officer at the Force Intelligence Department told The Gazette. “The IGP has mandated the legal department to obtain a court order that will permit his (Sowore’s) continued detention for 14 days or more.”
A separate officer at the Force Headquarters confirmed the development, saying, “The plan is to keep him in custody quietly while investigators gather more details to formally charge him. But for now, the goal is just to hold him down legally.”
The officer said Mr Sowore’s refusal to provide a written statement during interrogation has stalled the investigation and escalated pressure from senior police figures, particularly Mr Egbetokun and Force Public Relations Officer DCP Olumuyiwa Adejobi, who is rumoured to have a personal vendetta against Mr Sowore.
Both officers said the decision to keep the legal manoeuvre under wraps is intended to avoid public outcry and scrutiny.
“They don’t want the press or his lawyers to know until after the court order is granted,” one of the sources noted, adding that “that is why the Force PRO hasn’t released any statement concerning Sowore’s case.”
The Gazette learnt that the push for Mr Sowore’s prolonged detention came after he refused to cooperate with investigators unless shown the original copy of the police memo he was accused of forging—a position his legal team insists is within his constitutional right.
Mr Sowore alleged being assaulted by police operatives inside a detention cell at the Force Intelligence Department in Abuja on Thursday morning.
Posts on Mr Sowore’s verified Facebook and X (formerly Twitter) accounts read that he was attacked by operatives from the IGP Monitoring Unit, led by a deputy commissioner of police, Akin Fakorede.
“This morning at about 6:00 a.m., a police team led by a chief superintendent of police from the IGP Monitoring Unit forcibly gained entry into Omoyele Sowore’s cell at the Force Intelligence Department in Abuja, claiming they were taking him to court. The team of nine officers, including eight heavily armed personnel, handled Sowore roughly when he asked to see the charges and notify his lawyers, breaking his arm in the process, before taking him to another police facility,” the post said.
His legal team and associates said they had not been briefed on his whereabouts. The force spokesman, Muyiwa Adejobi, did not respond to a request for comments on the matter.
Mr Sowore was detained on Wednesday after honouring a police invitation regarding allegations of forgery and inciting disturbance. He arrived at the FID around 12:00 p.m. with a crowd of young supporters who held a brief protest outside the premises.
During the interrogation, Mr Sowore declined to write a statement, demanding that the police produce the original copy of the memo he was accused of forging.
“The police were trying to compel him to submit a statement without presenting the original document he allegedly forged,” Mr Sowore’s lawyer, Abdulkareem Musa, told The Gazette. “That is a clear abuse of procedure. No accused person is obliged to write a statement without seeing the evidence against them.”
Several human rights groups and high-ranking personalities, including Amnesty International, the Nigeria Labour Congress, the TakeItBack Movement, and former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, have condemned what they tagged as “unfair treatment” of Mr Sowore by the police while urging the police to release the activist.
The police invitation came barely two weeks after Mr Sowore’s involvement in a protest by retired police officers at the Force Headquarters in Abuja on July 21.
The retirees had called for their removal from the Contributory Pension Scheme and demanded improved welfare.
Mr Sowore had also accused a police cameraman, identified as Aku Chiemere, of stealing his Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses during the protest.
He formally reported the alleged theft to the Asokoro Police Division after an earlier petition by his lawyer to the Force Criminal Investigation Department was redirected.
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Source: https://gazettengr.com/igp-egbetokun-secretly-seeks-court-order-to-detain-sowore-for-two-weeks/
