A Lawyer representing Omoyele Sowore, the founder and publisher of
SaharaReporters, has accused the Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Fatai
Owoseni, of conniving with Lekan Fatodu and others who on Wednesday
assaulted the online publisher to manufacturer a petition accusing Mr.
Sowore of “criminal defamation and blackmail.”
In a statement released today, Inibehe Effiong, a solicitor and one of the
counsel to Mr. Sowore, decried some reports in print, online and social
media suggesting that the publisher of the New York City-based
SaharaReporters “was arrested and is being investigated by the Nigeria
Police Force on allegations bothering on ‘criminal defamation’ and
‘blackmail.’” Mr. Effiong dismissed the reports as outright falsehood,
adding that they were “variously credited to the duo of Mr. Lekan Fatodu
and the Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer, SP. Dolapo Badmos and
her Commissioner of Police, Fatai Owoseni.”
Mr. Effiong declared that he issued a statement in order to set the
records straight for the sake of credulous and unsuspecting members of the
public who may be misled by the outright falsehood being fed the public by
the police in active connivance with Mr. Sowore’s assailants.
Mr. Effiong gave a blow-by-account of what transpired between Mr. Sowore
and his assailant, Mr. Fatodu, an associate of former Aviation Minister
Femi Fani-Kayode. In a report early last year, SaharaReporters had
identified Mr. Fatodu as a role player in the former minister’s massive
money laundering schemes.
Part of Mr. Effiong’s statement read, “On Wednesday the 11th day of
January 2017 while driving in company of two of his associates through the
Government Reserved Area (GRA) in Ikeja, Lagos State, Mr. Sowore was
waylaid and gruesomely attacked by one Mr. Lekan Fatodu and his accomplice
simply identified as Dare aka “Mr. ‘Andre’.” The said assailants assaulted
Sowore and made attempts on his life before they were restrained and
overpowered by concerned members of the public.
“Following the intervention of concerned members of the public, the
assailants fled from the scene only to return soon afterwards in company
with a team of armed policemen from the Area ‘F’ Police Station, Ikeja on
the pretext that Sowore had committed ‘traffic offence’ and should be
arrested and taken to the nearest Police Station.
“The policemen first took Sowore and his associates to the Area ‘F’ Police
Station in Ikeja after which he was taken before the Lagos State
Commissioner of Police, Mr. Fatai Owoseni at the State Police Command,
Ikeja. In what smacks of an unholy alliance between the assailants and the
Policemen from Area ‘F’, Fatodu continued to assault and molest Sowore
right inside the Police van while he was being conveyed to the State
Police Command and at the police station without any resistance from the
policemen.
Shockingly, when Sowore drew the CP’s attention to the assault on his
person and the attempt on his life by Fatodu and his accomplice, he was
ignored and treated with scorn by the CP. He was subsequently transferred
to the State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID), Panti, Yaba, Lagos
State where he also reported the assault on his person and the attempt on
his life by Fatodu and his accomplice.
Today, without any plausible or prior investigation, the Lagos CP held a
press conference where he dismissed the assault and attempt made on the
life of Sowore by Fatodu and his accomplice as ‘’false alarm’’. This is
not surprising given the unfriendly, rude and aggressive manner the CP
treated Sowore when he was brought before him on Wednesday, January 11th,
2017.
Unknown to the Lagos State Police Command, the so-called offense of
‘’criminal defamation’’ no longer exist in Lagos State. Just for clarity,
the existing penal legislation in Lagos State is the Criminal Code Law of
Lagos State 2011 which came into force on the August 8th, 2011. The
Police may have wrongly relied on the provisions of a repealed law,
specifically Chapter 33 of the Criminal Code Law, Chapter C17, Vol. 2,
Laws of Lagos State of Nigeria, 2003 (now repealed by Section 417 of the
Criminal Code Law of Lagos State 2011) under which the said offence was
created. However, the offence was abrogated and expunged by the Lagos
State House of Assembly under the current law (The Criminal Law of Lagos
State 2011) as it cannot be found in any of the 418 Sections of the
Criminal Law of Lagos State 2011.
“Sowore was released unconditionally from the SCID Panti late in the night
of Wednesday the 11th day of January 2017 and asked to report the
following day by 2:00 p.m. On his part, the assailant and his accomplice
were only released after signing a bail bond.
“Before they were released on Wednesday night, the Deputy Commissioner of
Police in charge of the SCID, Panti (DCP) Bolaji Salami invited the
Investigating Police Officer (IPO) in charge of the matter and asked him
openly the offense that he was investigating as it concerns Sowore, Fatodu
and his accomplice. The IPO in the presence of and to the hearing of the
following persons: Sowore and his Counsel (Mr. Inibehe Effiong, Esq.);
Comrade Olanrewaju Suraj; and the Assistant Commissioner of Police SCID,
Panti ACP Frank Mba, declared that he was investigating a case of ‘TWO
FIGHTING’.
When Sowore reported at the SCID, Panti on Thursday January 12, 2017 by
2:00 p.m. as requested, the DCP and the ACP in charge of the SCID, Panti
rather than investigating the assault and attempt made on the life of
Sowore, or the alleged offense of ‘two fighting’ earlier alluded to by the
IPO, told him in unmistaken terms to forego the case and accept an
amicable settlement or resolution with Fatodu. A senior lawyer and
activist, Dr. Tunji Abayomi, who was among the numerous persons present
during the meeting at the DCP’s office where the peaceful settlement was
discussed offered to interface between the parties and report back to the
DCP on Tuesday the 17th day of January, 2017.
“We are indicating to the Nigerian public our total rejection of the
so-called mediation; it was a ruse packaged by the CP to fool the public.”
Mr. Effiong stated that the police never informed Mr. Sowore throughout
his stay at Area ‘F’ and SCID, Panti that he was being investigated for
alleged criminal defamation or blackmail. He added that his client was
never “questioned or confronted with evidence in respect of the malicious,
unfounded and spurious allegations even though Mr. Mba admitted that the
CP had sent a ‘petition’ against Sowore to his office in a separate car.
The petition was a photocopy, a situation Mr. Mba told Sowore, was also
irregular.
Though the Lagos CP had brandished a piece of paper which he claimed
contained a petition supposedly written by Fatodu against Sowore and
UK-based activist, Kayode Ogundamisi for ‘criminal defamation’, Sowore was
neither given, shown nor allowed to peruse or respond to the alleged
petition and the contents thereof despite asking for same.” According to
Mr. Effiong, “The CP was actually incensed by Sowore’s demand to be given
the petition and allowed to respond,” adding that the commissioner
furiously asked Mr Sowore, “who do you think you are’’?
Mr. Effiong stated that he was dismayed that “the very person who
assaulted and attempted to kill Sowore is now doling out tissues of lies
to the public despite the questionable mediation initiated by the Police
for his benefit.
The fact that Fatodu and the Mr. Owoseni disingenuously went to press
after Thursday’s meeting at the SCID, Panti and infamously accused Sowore
of ‘criminal defamation’, ‘blackmail’ and boasted of having in his
possession either non-existent or fabricated evidence is, to say the least
defamatory, irresponsible and utterly ludicrous.”
Mr. Effiong vehemently “again” condemn a press interview that appeared
earlier today and attributed to the Commissioner of Police where Mr.
Owoseni claiming that it was Sowore who first alerted the police.
According to Mr. Effiong, “When police arrived with Fatodu, they claimed
it was the public that alerted them to a robbery incident via a distress
call.”
Mr. Sowore’s lawyer stated that Mr. Fatodu was not acting alone. “The
treacherous attempts by Fatodu to dishonestly denigrate Sowore, for
immediate and insatiable gains is most unfortunate.” Mr. Effiong said that
Mr. Sowore had “resisted compromising offers from different governments at
all levels and politically exposed persons in Nigeria right from his days
as a fearless student leader,” adding that his client could not
“condescend to the level of seeking pecuniary benefits from the very
person he has assisted financially and otherwise for several years.”
He warned those who think “they can use Mr. Fatodu or any other
mischievous element to cow or blackmail Sowore and SaharaReporters into
submission” to “wake-up from their self-induced slumber because it is
easier for the camel to pass through the needle than for Sowore or
SaharaReporters to be silenced.”