BREAKING: Sowore Detained At Police IRT Office In Abuja Amid Plans To Fly Him To Lagos, Deny Bail

Human rights activist Omoyele Sowore is being detained at the Nigerian Police Intelligence Response Team (IRT) office at Old Abattoir by Guzape Junction, Abuja, following his refusal to accept the bail conditions imposed by the police.

Sowore earlier announced that the police would hold him in custody until further notice due to the parties’ failure to reach an agreement on the bail conditions.

The former presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC) has described the bail conditions as “illegal”.

However, sources informed SaharaReporters that Sowore was subsequently taken to the IRT office at Old Abattoir, a location previously used by the now-defunct Special Anti-Robbery Squad in Abuja.

“Sowore is being detained at the IRT office in Apo, Abbatoir Police Station in Guzape,” one of sources said.

The conditions include producing a level 16 civil servant as a surety and surrendering his passport.

Sowore had honoured an invitation by the police over his exposé on officers allegedly extorting motorists along Ikeja, Lagos State.

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However, he rejected the bail terms twice.

“He rejected their bail conditions twice because he is not prospered to honour any illegal bail conditions but as SaharaReporters had initially disclosed in its reports, the goal was to fly him to the Lagos State Criminal Investigation Department at the Commissioner’s Office and then charge him to court and not grant him bail,” a source privy to the situation told SaharaReporters on Monday.

Rejecting the bail conditions, Sowore via his X handle on Monday, said, “The PoliceNG team assigned to my case has informed me that the DIG of FID, Dasuki Galandachi, has reevaluated my bail conditions, necessitating the production of a level 16 civil servant and the surrender of my international passport, a condition I have declined outright.

“I refuse to participate in any arrangement that undermines my personal integrity.”

His legal counsel, Femi Falana (SAN), backed his stance, citing a Court of Appeal ruling in Dasuki v. Director-General.

Falana stated that such conditions had previously been declared illegal.

Earlier, Sowore rejected the initial bail conditions granted to him by the police – which asked him to present a level 17 Permanent Secretary – describing it as a joke.

In a post on his X handle, he said, “I have rejected a bail condition asking me to present a level 17 Permanent Secretary, instead I have offered to remain in police custody pending when the joke is over with.”

pic.twitter.com/gTJopkUxPQ

— Omoyele Sowore (@YeleSowore) January 27, 2025

The police invitation to Sowore followed a viral video he recorded, highlighting extortion by police officers on the Murtala Muhammed International Airport Access Road in Lagos.

In their letter, the police claimed they are investigating Sowore for “resisting and obstructing public officers, disobedience to lawful order, acts intended to cause grievous harm or prevent arrest, compelling action by intimidation, reckless & negligent acts, refusal to assist public servant and cyberstalking in which your name featured, prominently”.

The DIG of FID, Dasuki Galandachi at the Nigeria Police Force in Abuja had just informed me that he has instructed his personnel to grant me bail, pending the conclusion of the “investigation”.

I have also advised the DIG that in accepting “bail”, I will not agree to conditions… pic.twitter.com/aqEzgBKLMc

— Omoyele Sowore (@YeleSowore) January 27, 2025

Background

On Saturday, SaharaReporters reported that Inspector General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, secretly planned to fly Sowore from Abuja to Lagos on Monday after he honours the police invitation on January 27, 2025.

Sources informed SaharaReporters on Saturday that the invitation is not related to the video but stems from a deep-seated personal grudge that Police Boss Egbetokun holds against the Publisher of SaharaReporters.

According to sources, the invitation is motivated by Sowore's nickname for Egbetokun - "Illegal IG," in reference to his tenure being extended beyond the retirement age.

For example, on December 20, 2024, Sowore called for the release of Olamide Thomas, a nurse detained for allegedly insulting President Bola Tinubu’s son, Seyi, as well as Egbetokun and the Force spokesman, Muyiwa Adejobi, in a social media post.

In the post, Sowore said, “The illegal IG of Nigeria Police Force, Kayode Egbetokun will make the next #ENDSARS inevitable! He is working tirelessly towards it. Just a matter of time! #EgbetokunMustGo #Revolution freeolamidenow.”

Sources close to the matter revealed that Egbetokun was still smarting from being labelled "Illegal IG" by Sowore, following the extension of his tenure beyond the mandatory retirement age.

“The plot being hatched by the inspector General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun had nothing to do very much with the viral anti-extortion video for which Sowore has now been invited for interview on Monday at the Police Headquarters in Abuja,” a source told SaharaReporters on Saturday.

Instead SaharaReporters learnt from sources that the IGP “holds a very-very personal grudge against the publisher of SaharaReporters over his constant referral to him an ‘illegal IGP’”, a sobriquet Sowore adopted since last year when the IGP’s tenure was extended beyond his retirement age.

Also, according to sources, Egbetokun had been monitoring how to “deal” with Sowore and had informed senior police officers in his circle that he would take his pound of flesh whenever the opportunity arose.

However, the reality is that after Sowore encountered policemen engaging in illegal roadblocks and extortion on the way to the Murtala Mohammed International Airport in Lagos, all the policemen involved were rounded up and they confessed to their illegal acts.

“Their lead also told the police hierarchy that they recognised Sowore and let him go not knowing he caught them on tape operating an illegal checkpoint,” a source also said on Saturday.

“However, the DIG in charge of the Force Intelligence Department (FID) (DIG Dasuki D. Galadanchi); Chief Legal Officer of the NPF, Samuel Lough and the Force PRO (Adejobi) and the PSO (Principal Staff Officer – Johnson Adenola) to the IGP have been deliberating for weeks since the video went viral on how to get Sowore implicated in a string of crimes.

“They’ve also got the CPs of the Nigeria Police Force National Cybercrime Center (NPF-NCCC) and the IRT unit involved and deliberated for weeks on the best strategy to employ considering how delicate the situation is because of the public.”

The sources revealed that it was decided a few days ago that Sowore should be officially invited, interrogated, and detained in Abuja before being flown to Lagos to face trial.

According to them, the plan is for a judge to either deny him bail or set bail conditions so high that he would be remanded in prison custody for a while.