Human rights activist and former presidential candidate, Omoyele Sowore, on Tuesday accused top officials of the Nigeria Police Force of orchestrating a fresh legal plot to revive a cybercrime case earlier struck out by the Federal High Court in Abuja, in what he described as a disturbing abuse of judicial process.
Sowore made the allegation after proceedings before Justice Musa Liman, where he said a series of unusual legal maneuvers unfolded around the cybercrime charge initially filed against him by the police.
According to Sowore, the case had earlier been struck out by the court. However, rather than allow the matter to rest, he alleged that a fresh ex parte motion was subsequently filed by police officials to relist the same case for trial.
He specifically named the former Inspector-General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, ACP Bukola Kuti, and AIG Emmanuel Ade Aina, the officer in charge of the Police Legal Directorate, as those behind what he termed an “astonishing” attempt to reopen the matter.
Describing the day’s events as “revealing and deeply troubling,” Sowore alleged that despite Egbetokun’s removal from office, the former police chief still appeared to be exercising influence within the police hierarchy.
His legal team, led by Barrister Marshal D. F. Abubakar and Barrister Rosemary Hamza of Adeyanju Deji’s chambers, was said to have immediately applied for the Certified True Copy of the ruling and final order striking out the case. However, Sowore claimed court officials delayed the process, citing the public holiday.
At the centre of the dispute was also the release of Sowore’s international passport and the land documentation of his surety, both of which had been deposited as part of the bail conditions imposed on him since January 2025.
Sowore said repeated applications for the release of the passport were resisted, adding that Justice Liman at one point allegedly suggested that his wife and family members would need to swear affidavits before the travel document could be returned.
He further alleged that the case itself had suffered several deliberate adjournments over the months, often on the grounds of the judge’s conferences and other official engagements.
According to him, recent events now cast those repeated delays in a different light.
He disclosed that last week, the police legal directorate filed what he described as an unusual ex parte motion to relist the struck-out case. On Tuesday, he said the court registrar informed his lawyers that Justice Liman would not formally sign the ruling and order striking out the matter until the police appeared to move their application to relist the case and also withdraw it in open court.
In what he described as a further contradiction, Sowore said the police later filed yet another ex parte application seeking to withdraw their earlier motion to relist the matter.
While he and his lawyers waited for proceedings to begin, Sowore said they were suddenly informed that the case was not listed for hearing, even though, according to him, the pending application to relist ought not to have affected their request to obtain the ruling and order already delivered.
During the period of waiting, Sowore said he addressed journalists at the court premises on what he called “a range of national issues.”
He also recounted a dramatic moment during the media interaction, alleging that a Senior Advocate of Nigeria identified as Musbau, SAN, abruptly interrupted the session and attempted to intimidate both him and journalists at the court complex, asking them to vacate the courtroom area.
Sowore said he thereafter left the court premises for another engagement at the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Abuja.
However, upon concluding that meeting, he said his lawyers informed him that Justice Liman had gone ahead to relist the matter, allowed a police lawyer to move the application, and then, in what he described as an ironic turn, brought the entire case to an end by granting an ex parte order permitting the police to withdraw it.
He maintained that the process was irregular and contradictory, arguing that a matter already struck out should not have been relisted only to be withdrawn moments later.
Despite the controversy, Sowore confirmed that his international passport was eventually released to his lawyer and returned to him, bringing to a close what he described as a prolonged and unjustified seizure.
As of the time of filing this report, there was no official response from the Nigeria Police Force, the court, or the officers named by Sowore over the allegations surrounding the attempted relisting of the case, the withdrawal application, and the eventual release of his travel documents.
The development marks yet another chapter in Sowore’s long-running legal and political confrontations with state authorities, with the activist insisting that the latest events further expose what he sees as a sustained misuse of the justice system against dissenting voices.
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