NIGERIA ARRESTS ACTIVIST CALLING FOR REVOLUTION
ABUJA - Nigerian security agents arrested Omoyele Sowore, an activist, news organisation founder and former presidential candidate who was calling for revolution, the security agency said on Sunday.
Sowore, a human rights activist who founded Nigerian online news organisation Sahara Reporters and ran for president as a minor candidate in the February election, was arrested by the State Security Service on Saturday. The detention comes as President Muhammadu Buhari, who won a second term in the election, faces criticism for his administration’s record on human rights.
Sowore has said Nigeria needs revolution partly because the elections were not credible, along with a list of other issues ranging from corruption to ineptitude.
“We don’t want war,” he said in a July video. “We want a very clean, quick, succinct revolutionary process - surgical. That we put an end to the shenanigans of government, that we put an end to oppression, the corruption of government.”
Meanwhile, a court has allowed the leader of a banned pro-Iranian Shia Muslim group to seek medical leave in India after more than three years in custody.
Supporters of Ibrahim Zakzaky have been protesting on the streets of the capital, Abuja, for months calling for his release.
Sheikh Zakzaky, 66, has been charged with culpable homicide and other offences, all of which he denies. The court also ordered a delegation to accompany Sheikh Zakzaky to India to ensure he returns for trial after getting treatment.