[caption id="attachment_62973" align="alignright" width="400"] Omoyele Sowore [/caption] Omoyele Sowore, Saharareporters publisher, visited TheNEWS headquarters recently. He spoke about his encounter with the Lagos State police command, his brush with university and government authorities over the years Q: You were arrested by the Police in Lagos, narrate what led to that... With regards to this particular incident, it started because Saharareporters did an investigation in January 2016 of how former Nigerian Minister and ex-President Goodluck Jonathan’s Campaign Publicity Director, Femi Fani-Kayode, started drawing down on the funds of the National Security Adviser that was meant to fight Boko Haram. Fani-Kayode began fraudulently taking funds using a variety of fronts of which, Lekan Fatodu, who runs Leeman Communications, was an accomplice. Their first scam netted N12 million from the NSA funds. But to hide that money wasn’t going to Femi Fani-Kayode, they routed the money through a female. Femi Fani-Kayode submitted the account of a female to Lekan and Lekan transferred that money to that female. Did you have proof? The former NSA wired the payment through an account, FGNS062014. Our investigation found that as soon as Leeman Communications Ltd received the funds, Mr. Fani-Kayode then sent text messages to Fatodu to release his portion of the payment through a female front, Olushola Grace Obaze, through her account number, 001-542-8962, at Diamond Bank. Lekan got a cut from it, so there was no implementation whatsoever of the contract. So we wrote the story, and when Saharareporters was investigating it, I called Lekan to find out if he was involved and he immediately admitted to me that he was involved. In short, he was the one that provided the screenshot of how he transferred the money to Femi Fani-Kayode. However, he immediately started invoking friendship claiming that because I was the one who helped to get him admitted to the University of Lagos. I am just giving you a little bit of background, so when I heard this, going back to January 2016, I said this is despicable, this is not the kind of mentoring that I thought I was doing for you to become a thief and he said, please don’t mention my name, just mention Fani Kayode’s name. On the day our report went live, his company’s name was published by the FGN as one of the companies that took money from the NSA. Narrate the attack drama... On the day he attacked me at GRA Ikeja, we were just driving from a restaurant with three persons in a car when Lekan Fatodu and his friend driving a red SUV blocked us and Lekan jumped out of the car and knocked my window. I lowered the window thinking this is a familiar face. As soon as I lowered the window, he grabbed me by my collar in a chokehold, trying to drag me out of the car. Of course my colleague on the other side was very worried and said this is unusual, this is guy has never been this aggressive before and before I could say anything, he opened my door and dragged me out and the guy who was with him brought his phone and started filming the attack. So at that point construction workers and bystanders within the area came out en mass. When he saw the resistance from the public he ran away abandoning his colleague who was filming the attack. That fellow too wanted to escape in their car, they didn’t let him go but I made sure they were not touched, but the enraged public deflated their tyres. So we drove into the premises, locked up the gate and my colleague tried to call somebody that he knew but apparently because of the way the commotion happened, people around there had also called the police thinking this was daylight robbery or kidnapping attempt. Soon a police team, led by a DSP knocked the gate where we were, parked and said: “We are Police, come out.” When I heard police, I felt a bit comfortable, I came out and this Lekan leapt towards me again in front of policemen, and I said to the policemen this is weird, how do you go and resolve crime and the person who is accused of assault has this freedom, effrontery to be acting like this in front of you? The cop got upset, and he said Oh you have to come to the police; he dragged me and got me sandwiched between two policemen and Lekan kept assaulting and insulting me all the way to the Area ‘F’ police station in Ikeja, and I kept complaining, that this is wrong, you just don’t do this. We got to the police station, he continued inside Area ‘F’, so we even filmed one of the encounters on my phone, he continued to attack us right inside the police station. There was so much confusion and collusion at the police station. We got summoned by the Area Commander, a lady, and he started his story saying this is the saharareporters guy, he is the one who did the story about the IG of police sleeping with someone in his office, and all the officers were coming out and asking are you the one and I said Yes. I am the one, I hope you read it! So the Area commander said can you people tell me your stories? Of course Lekan changed his story that I had jumped red light and that in an attempt to apprehend the person, they found out that it was me and because he had a grudge against me he wanted to quickly settle it there but you know I mobilized people and they chased him away. So she said ok, DCO go and take their statement and the DCO came , gave us paper, everybody wrote his/her statement. As we were about finishing the statements, everybody started rushing in. They said the Commissioner of Police had ordered that we should be brought before him, so we barely signed our statements and they collected them back, they asked us to enter the car and I said No, am not sitting in the same car with him. The Area Coommander began pleading claiming she just discovered I was not an ‘ordinary person’ but I insisted I wanted to be treated like an ordinary person. What caused the conflict between you and the CP there? As soon as we sat down, he walked back into the counte room, and so he came back with a bunch of papers and dropped it on his table, and he started speaking, and then he said to Lekan: Why did you go and take laws into your hands by attacking him? Lekan said, you know this guy had done something about me, but I am so sorry. The CP said ok don’t worry and he looked at me and said Mr. Man, what’s your name again? I said Sowore Omoyele. He was standing, and he said right here we have a petition against you for criminal libel, blackmail, and a threat to life. At that point, it made sense to me that this was all pre-planned. I said excuse me Mr Commissioner, you mean if someone submits a petition to you, you allow the person who wrote the petition to go roaming the streets with a club or machete or gun to kill? He flared up and said look at the way you are talking to me, I have heard so much about you, being a rude person, I am a police commissioner, you can do it to the junior policemen on the streets. And I said to him, what is the problem? One of the men came to the front to sit, when he saw his behavior and was calming him down and I started looking at him with scorn because of my disappointment and disgust at him. We exchanged cold stares and then he barked: “Drop your phone, look at the way you are looking at me, sizing me up! There is no remorse.” He was thinking I’d be scared of him. He immediately ordered that I should be driven to the state CID at Panti that even upon arriving there we met Frank Mba, former PPRO of the Nigerian Police. He already had the so-called petition in front of him and he said honestly, this petition just got here 15 minutes ago, minuted by the CP. He added: “The procedure for treating a petition is that we get it days before, the original copy and one gets a chance to call in the complainant and investigate”. But this time, the petition arrived in a different car before you people arrived here. He said to me; you know this is strange. At that point, I knew that they had completely changed the story. There was no mention of the attack anymore, now it is now the petition. So he took all of us before the DCP Panti who when he introduced himself to us said he had been at the EFCC for eight years before he came to Panti and he was their admin officer. The first thing he said was by the way I want you to know that every day before I got to the office, I first of all log into Saharareporters, read it before I will start my day. The CP called him, while we were there, maybe after the social media went agog with the story, there was a lot of pressure on him, I suspected it was the CP who was just saying look, let’s do this by way of reconciliation, let’s just keep pushing the story that it was a misunderstanding between two friends so that nobody had to ask what happened. We were assigned to an IPO and when we finished writing our statement, they took us back to the DCP again. He ordered our release after asking that the police wanted an amicable settlement. I was alarmed. [caption id="attachment_62974" align="alignright" width="400"] Omoyele Sowore [/caption] But then they said for you to walk out of this place you have to sign a bail bond, I said ok, you may have to detain me because you have to explain to me the offence I committed first, you have to book me into the system before you can bail me out, there is no basis for signing a bail bond. They said, it is late in the night, just sign it, it is for documentation purposes; I said no, am not signing any bail bond. This was about 10 pm, I said you can detain me here, tomorrow we continue, the man said no, your own is too much, let us go and see Frank Mba again, and when we met Frank Mba, he wrote on the top of the bail bond, “Self Recognizance,” saying: “Sowore, you are an important man, look we are letting you go, I said don’t play that game with me. I want to know the offence you are bailing me out of, it is as simple as that. He said Ok, go and see the DCP. The IPO walked me into the DCP’s office, and the DCP asked the IPO, what is the problem? He said, this man will not sign the bail bond. He said Mr. Sowore why won’t you sign the bail bond? I said my offense had not been established. The DCP then asked IPO, so what are you investigating? The man said, Oga I don’t know. They just assigned me to this thing, on a second thought, he said it was “Two Fighting”. The man dropped his hand on the table, so you mean you brought two fighting from Area F to Panti? He said Mr. Sowore you can go. That’s how I left the place. At that point a vibrant young lawyer, Inibefe Effiong and a freelance journalist, Femi Owolabi had joined me at Panti. How did this people know that you were in Lagos to the extent of sending thugs to attack you at Ikeja GRA? When I was coming into the country, the DSS stopped me at Murtala Muhammed International Airport, so my hunch was probably there was some kind of communication between these agencies to show that this guy has arrived. I was stalked and probably trailed for days before I was attacked Kindly tell us about your encounters with the security agents at the point of entry I have had four encounters with the DSS guys, prior to the Buhari government coming to power. For eight years before Buhari, I wasn’t passing through Nigerian airports. I devised my own airport to come into Nigeria and left but when this new government came into power, I decided that I was tired of sneaking around, whatever will happen I wanted to damn it, I knew all along that my name has been in the airport. Talk about your trips through the back door, especially it was during one of such that you interviewed Gbenga Obasanjo... I had been doing several of those trips throughout the West African corridor. Yes, during one of the trips, I met Gbenga Obasanjo and had this interview that changed the political landscape. I have been doing that rounds through different routes for a long time until 2015. What is the implication of all this on the media? Well, I believe they are testing a new strategy to adopt for renewed clampdown on the media. Tell us about your various encounters with the authorities over time... From Lagos to Yola! I was detained at the same Area “F” when it used to be known as “Area Finish,” it was most notorious police station in Lagos then and I bet now and when I finished my studies, my results were held on almost a year and half. I should have graduated in 1993, they didn’t let me go until 1995 and I was sent to Yola Adamawa state to do NYSC. When I finished my NYSC I was arrested, detained at the Nigerian Airforce facility in Yola and when I was let go, they never gave me my NYSC certificate till this day. [caption id="attachment_62973" align="alignright" width="400"] Omoyele Sowore [/caption] What were you persecuted for? In that instance I was working as a TV producer doing a show for corpers on Adamawa TV. When Ken Saro Wiwa was killed in November 1995, I did a show saying that the government murdered Ken Saro Wiwa and they immediately came for me. What about your days as a student union activist in UNILAG? When I was at the University of Lagos I was the leader of, not only the university of Lagos students, I was also a vibrant leader of NANS, and I was part of the Campaign for Democracy that fought several military regimes to a standstill, providing the prodemocracy groups an army of student activists for major street protests, sometimes, thousands upon thousands of students. I was also managing the youth student alliances particularly in Lagos. You can go back and recall that I was the person that gave the eulogy during Abiola’s burial because I mobilized forces that prevented the federal government delegation from attending Abiola’s burial. They couldn’t come, they were at the airport, they couldn’t go near the burial place of Abiola. We prevented it from happening, so this has been the trajectory. In a particular instance when I was expelled, Rear Admiral Mike Akhigbe was the second in command of the military dictator then, Abubakar Abdusalami, and he was a Law student at the University of Lagos, who had not been attending classes. So we protested against him that he had not been attending classes, he doesn’t deserve to graduate and when I was expelled from the university, I was not allowed to write my exams, students were mobilized to his class. I studied Geography and planning but Akhigbe was studying evening Law, we went to the Law faculty, and we walked into his class and said sir you have not been attending classes, and now we have been expelled, even though we attend classes but you have not been attending classes, and you are allowed to write your exams. Of course, we heard that the school authorities were providing them help to pass his exam. So we say, we go to classes, we study, you don’t study, you don’t attend classes but you are passing, now this is over and protesting students approached him and tore his exam papers. What about the protest at NUGA in 1998? There was this Nigeria University Games at the University of Lagos and Akhigbe again was the guest of honour and we paralysed the game. I was now invited as the leader of the students protesters to come and address the students so that they can let the games hold since Akhigbe and Buba Marwa promised to intervene. Akhigbe called me and said, tell your boys to leave, come and see me in Abuja. I said No sir, I am not coming to see you in Abuja, we have to address this issue right here, there has to be a commitment to absorb all these students who were politically victimized. During the course of my speech, I mentioned that when I was the students union President, Akhigbe was a student under us, and he can tell you my history and he left his chair to come and wrestle the microphone from me and in the process he nearly fell, so his guards rushed me on the stage. There were about twenty guns pointed at me at once, as I was on the floor and then they dragged me, as they were dragging me away from the sports center, the students were surging. Lagos Police Commissioner, Abubakar Tsav, was leading me out of the stadium, he was in mufti, there was one girl Yemisi Ilesanmi from OAU, she is in London now, she said no, you can’t take him away and she was taunting them and they slapped her and she must have slapped Tsav as a result at the stadium and there was badlam. That was how they dragged us out of the place, they had to forcefully take us to the Special Anti Robbery Squad at the police HQ in Ikeja, we were detained with armed robbers that night and I eventually spent two weeks at SCID Panti. What happened that the magistrate dismissed the case? And when we were brought before a magistrate court, the judge did not know that the Nigerian penal code does not allow you to arrest and prosecute somebody if the commotion is in the stadium. When Ebun Adegboruwa who was my lawyer from Gani Fahanmi chambers said, my lord you are trying a case that does not exist and the judge said what do you mean, what are you trying them for? Conduct likely to disturb public peace. The law says my lord, that you cannot disturb public peace in a stadium because the stadium is already in a state of commotion. You cannot do that in a theatre. And the judge said, oh, can I see you counsel and that was the end of the case. It was after that, that I left Nigeria to go to the US. Please permit this one. Many people will like to describe you as an “ipata” (rascally man), what actually drives you apart from those things you have mentioned? Is radicalism part of your ancestry... I don’t know of any notable activist globally who has never been described as unruly or rascally. Truth is that you can’t fight opression without a disruptive rascality. You know, when people were taken across the Atlantic as slaves, there are histories of slaves revolting in the middle of the sea saying instead of becoming a slave, we will die here, and they jumped voluntarily into the sea. There is a history in Mississippi of the first internal revolt of slaves in the US was carried out by the Igbos and there was a lake where they had to cross and they sank the boat in the middle between those two islands, saying we are not going to take this. Africans have always resisted oppression, so it doesn’t need to be in the ancestral line. [caption id="attachment_62973" align="alignright" width="400"] Omoyele Sowore [/caption] There is also a story when the police invaded my village in 1981. They carried out an atrocity simply because there was a protest in the market and what they did to the village, decimating the lives of young people and those who didn’t even participate changed my life forever. I was 10 years old and I said if I grow up I will fight oppression to the last. When I got to the secondary school, my first protest was to protest against the principal, to protest against flogging of girls. He was a sadistic principal, I think he derived a sexual pleasure in that. He had two boys carry the girls, and he flogged them and their under wears would expose, and we had to write an article about it in the press club. I even pasted it and somebody saw me doing it. What was your offence then? The school had a mango tree, the mangoes were ripe but we were not allowed to eat them, the school will harvest them and sell them. I shook the mango tree until all the mango fruit fell, students came and ate the mango that afternoon as a way of protesting. They flogged me in the assembly, breaking my pen. I was supposed to write exams that day. Then, when I got to the university, of course I was lucky to see Falana come to UNILAG to come and address us about the World Bank thing. Before then, I had participated in a protest, but when I finally met with Femi Falana, I just said, where had he been, this is the kind of message my brain should have been fitted with. I started right from there.