A group, Northern Ethnic Youth Group Assembly (NEYGA),
has called for the prosecution of a politician and African Action Congress (AAC) presidential candidate in the 2023 general election, Omoyele Sowore, for allegedly leaking video clips of his lawyer cross-examining a Department of State Services (DSS) operative in an alleged cyberbullying suit brought against him by the secret police.
The group described the leaked video as “contempt of court, a mockery of our judicial system, and, above all, a breach of national security,” which it said could make an offender spend up to 32 years behind bars.
According to a statement by the group, the video, which it said was ostensibly leaked by the defendant (Sowore), exposed the identity of the secret service agent, thereby breaching the National Security Agencies Act (1986) and the Official Secrets Act (1962).
The statement was signed by the Assembly’s spokesperson, Alhaji Ibrahim Dan-Musa.
Noted the group, “In the United States where Sowore has lived for decades, blowing the cover of a secret service agent is a breach of the Intelligence Identities Protection Act, and is a very serious crime.
“In Nigeria, blowing the cover of a secret service agent, who swore to an oath of secrecy, is both a breach of both the National Security Agencies Act (1986) and the Official Secrets Act of 1962,” stated the group.
“Sowore and his lawyer should have known better. He is undergoing trial for alleged cyberbullying. However, with the leaked footage of a secret service agent, he could face a more serious charge of breaching the National Security Agencies Act (1986) and the Official Secrets Act of 1962,” noted the group in the statement.
“Ignorance, they say, isn’t an excuse to breach the law. Personnel of the DSS are bound by a strict oath of secrecy to protect national security, official documents, and classified information, the reason people like Sowore often like call the agency ‘secret police'”.
“To be sure, added the Assembly, the punishment for breaching this law includes facing up to 20 years in prison, in addition to fines and asset forfeiture.”
The group called on the Federal High Court, under Justice Mohammed Umar, not to turn a blind eye to what it described as direct contempt (in facie curiae).
“This most disrespectful conduct by the defendant must not be left to go unpunished. We most respectfully urge his Lordship to mete out appropriate sanctions on the defendant who, by his disrespectful conduct, attempted to turn the hallowed chambers of His Lordship into a circus.
“It is of outmost importance to teach the defendant a hard lesson that Nigeria isn’t the Banana Republic he and his ilk depict on social media.”
In the about 12 – minute long video clip, which has since gone viral, Sowore’s lawyer, Marshall Abubakar, was captured cross-examining a witness identified as an operative of the Department of State Services (DSS).
The video clip also captured an objection by the DSS counsel, Akinlolu Kehinde, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), as well as a ruling by the trial judge.