A Nigerian court has granted fresh bail to the prominent activist and former presidential candidate Omoyele Sowore, weeks after his previous bail was revoked for failing to appear in court.
A Federal High Court in the capital, Abuja, set the new bail at 200 million naira ($128,000; £101,000).
Justice Muhammad Umar ruled that Mr. Sowore must provide two sureties to secure his release. One must be a traditional ruler from his home community, and the other must own property in Abuja.
The activist was also ordered to surrender his international passport to the court.
Mr. Sowore is being prosecuted by Nigeria’s secret police, the Department of State Services (DSS), over cybercrime allegations. The charges relate to social media posts in which he allegedly referred to President Bola Tinubu as “a criminal”.
He denies the charges and has pleaded not guilty.
Remanded in prison
The court had revoked Mr Sowore’s previous bail on 16 June and issued a warrant for his arrest after he missed a scheduled hearing.
The activist explained that he was in Lagos for a prior engagement and had requested an adjournment, but prosecutors opposed the motion and urged the judge to proceed.
Following the warrant, Mr. Sowore challenged the decision and asked the judge to step down from the case. After that application was dismissed, he was remanded at the Kuje Correctional Centre outside Abuja pending Tuesday’s hearing.
Following the ruling, Justice Umar handed Mr. Sowore over to his legal team and adjourned the trial until Monday, 6 July, when the defence is expected to open its case.
‘They cannot stop us’
Speaking shortly after the hearing, Mr. Sowore condemned the strict bail conditions, describing them as a continued attempt by the authorities to restrict his movement and silence his activism.
“There is no bus on earth that can stop this revolution,” he told reporters. “They have always been after the passport. So nobody can come after our movement. Nobody can stop the movement.”
He added: “What I want to tell Nigerians is that it is not about my freedom; it is about the liberation of the Nigerian people.”
Mr. Sowore, a vocal critic of successive Nigerian governments and the founder of the news website Sahara Reporters, has faced multiple legal battles and detentions over his political activism and calls for systemic reform in Africa’s most populous nation.
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