The detained journalist and politician, Omoyele Sowore, has challenged his continued detention by the Department of State Service (DSS).
The publisher of Sahara Reporter and failed presidential candidate of the AAC party in the February 23 election, was arrested through a court order on accusation of planning to overthrow the government of President Muhammadu Buhari.
Sowore had convened the #RevolutionNow protests which the government considered as criminal.
The DSS obtained a court order to detain Sowore for 45 days in the first instance and is seeking the court to grant another 45 days detention.
Sowore, challenged the powers of the DSS to arrest, investigate and prosecute him or any person under the Terrorism Prevention Act as amended.
In the documents filed on his behalf by human rights activist and lawyer, Mr. Femi Falana, Sowore contended that the DSS was not one of the law enforcement agencies recognised and listed in Section 40 of the Terrorism Prevention Act as amended.
“Although we are not unaware that the Department of State Service (DSS) is listed in Section 40 of the Terrorism Prevention Act, we submit that the DSS is not a juristic person having not been created by any Act of the National Assembly,” a suit filed at a Federal High Court in Abuja read.
Sowore stated that the fact that the SSS and DSS were used interchangeably in the country has not conferred legal status on the Service.
According to him, the motion ex parte for his arrest was filed by the SSS and not DSS and as far as the law is concerned, the SSS has no power to substitute itself for the DSS.
The #RevolutionNow protests convener further denied DSS reports linking him to any terrorist activity.
He said he has never been involved in any terrorist activity and there was no evidence whatsoever linking him to same.
In specific response to the mass protest tagged “Revolution Now’’ which took place in some cities across the country on August 5 in his absence, Sowore said there was no reported attempt to violently topple the government in Nigeria.
“The use of the word ‘revolution’ is not a criminal offence in Nigeria. Since a revolutionary change of government requires the complete overhaul of the legal and social order, the August 5 protest is not a revolution in the eye of the law,” the suit added.
MM/GIK/APA