The Presidency has reacted to the re-arrest of the #RevolutioNow convener, Omoyele Sowore, saying that the Department of States Services (DSS) do not require any approval to do what the constitution directs them to do, ordinarily, Sowore’s statement is enough to make him a person of interest to the DSS.
The Presidency disclosed that the DSS has a mandate to carry out as enshrined in the NSA Act establishing it and therefore does not require any permission to embark on such duties as charged by the constitution.
Mallam Garba Shehu, the Senior Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity made this statement yesterday while reacting to the re-arrest of Omoyele Sowore in a court room by the DSS.
Shehu disclosed the presidency is not surprised when it hard about the arrest, because for any right-thinking Nigerian, Sowore utterances are enough to make him a person of security interest to the DSS.
He noted that Sowore being a public figure who operates a widely read online newspaper and also a contestant of the 2019 general election who lost to President Buhari the number one seat, it shall not be in his character to call for revolution of a democratically elected president on Television and think that the security will clap for him.
Shehu revealed, Sowore championed an organisation called #RevolutioNow intended to lunch a “Days of Rage” with the sole purpose of staging a civil unrest and the ultimate overthrow of a Democratically elected president shall not be seen as a joke.
The Senior Special Adviser revealed that no sane government would fold its arm and allow somebody to openly call for the destabilization of an organised country considering the numerous security challenges confronting the country and do nothing.
He disclosed that Sowore is not just an ordinary citizen that should be ignored when he expressed his opinion on the social media; he participated in the presidential race in the just concluded Feb, 23 general election that returned president Buhari.
“Nigeria’s democracy has come a long way, and it was achieved after decades of frequent intervention of harsh, military-led overthrows of government: exactly the kind of situation Sowore was advocating for.
Therefore, an armed revolution is never part of the human right activists and this does not place Sowore in a good light, therefore, it is not a surprise that the DSS has to stop him from what he was planning to achieve.
“Nigerians do not need another spate of lawlessness and loss of lives all in the name of ‘revolution’, especially not one that is orchestrated by a man who makes his home in far away New York – and who can easily disappear and leave behind whatever instability he intends to cause, to wit, Nnamdi Kanu. This is a matter for the DSS, acting under its powers.”