Justice Emeka Nwite of the Federal High Court Abuja, on Monday, struck out charges of treasonable felony brought against the convener of the #RevolutionNow protest, Omoyele Sowore, by the Federal Government.
Last week, the Federal Government had through the office of the Attorney General of the Federation, Lateef Fagbemi, filed a notice of discontinuance before the court.
The notice read, “By virtue of the power conferred on me under Section 174 (1) (c} of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 as amended, Section 107 (1) of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act 2015 and all other powers enabling me in that behalf, I Lateef Olasunkanmi Fagbemi, SAN intend to discontinue charge No: FHC/ABJ/CR/235/2019″.
In a ruling on Monday, Justice Nwite held that the court was bound to strike out the charge since the case was starting afresh before him.
He subsequently struck out the charges. The court ordered the Department for State Services (DSS) to return three phones seized from Sowore, his passport as well as the N10,000 collected from him and a phone collected from the second defendant.
Sowore and his co-defendant Olawale Bakare were arraigned before the Federal High Court Abuja in 2019, following a protest rally he staged in Abuja tagged “Revolution Now.”