Omoyele Sowore, convener of the Revolution Now Movement, has been granted bail in the sum of N20 million.
A magistrate court sitting in Wuse Zone 2, Abuja, on Monday granted bail but Sowore said the conditions were too stringent.
He along with Peter Williams, Sanyaolu Juwon, Emmanuel Bulus and Damilare Adenola were arrested on New Year’s eve during a protest organised and led by him.
The police had arraigned the five persons last week Monday on three counts of conspiracy, unlawful assembly, and incitement.
Mabel Segun-Bello, the magistrate, had ordered that they be remanded at the Kuje correctional centre.
But last Tuesday, they were transferred to the Force Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department (FCIID) after Sowore reported that they were denied access to healthcare, food and water.
Counsel to the defendants, Marshal Abubakar, while moving the application for bail, asked the court to grant them clients “on self recognisance or in the alternative grant bail in the most liberal terms”.
The ruling which was scheduled for Friday was stalled owing to the failure of the police to produce the defendants in court.
On Monday, ruling on the bail application, the chief magistrate said the defendants did not resist arrest while being apprehended.
According to her, the defendants are entitled to bail as it is their fundamental right to liberty.
The second, third, fourth and fifth defendants were granted bail in liberal terms with a bond of one million each.
They are also to produce one surety in like sum who “must be resident in Abuja with an identifiable workplace and residential address”.
“The first defendant however, Omoyele Sowore is also admitted to bail in the sum of N20m and two sureties in like sum,” the magistrate ordered.
One of the sureties must be a civil servant not below grade level 12 in the federal civil service.
The magistrate said Sowore must report physically to the chief registrar of the FCT high court or any other person designated by the chief registrar every Monday and Friday morning until the end of the case.
She added that all defendants must not travel outside Abuja metropolis or outside the country pending determination of the case.
Sowore, in his reaction, said the bail conditions were too stringent.
He said the bail sum was too high for a civil servant, adding that no civil servant would want to risk their job for such bail.
Sowore, however, thanked his supporters for standing by him.
Five children trapped inside abandoned car in Minna die
Five children have reportedly died of suffocation in an abandoned vehicle in the Albishiri area of Minna, Niger State.
The children were said to have gone missing on Sunday morning before they were found dead at 6pm on the same day.
One of the children was said to be a child of the owner of the car while another one was the child of a neighbour.
The remaining three were siblings, belonging to one Abdullahi Etsu of Etsu-tasha, from the Albishiri area.
Spokesman for the police command in Niger, Wasiu Abiodun, confirmed the incident in a statement on Monday.
He said the children were between the ages of five and 13.
Abiodun said the children were found trapped in a Honda Civic vehicle in the area.
He stated, “On 21/4/2024 at about 6.30pm, based on information received at Kpakungu Div, five children of about 5-13 years of age were found trapped in a Honda Civic vehicle with Reg No. GO 778 ABC at Albishiri area of Minna,” the statement reads.
“They were found to have suffocated in the vehicle, while their bodies were later removed by the various Parents, as Police visited the scene.
“However, the owner of the vehicle was invited for questioning, as the unfortunate incident is under investigation.”
FG summons Abuja Chinese supermarket owner to tribunal over discrimination
Director of Surveillance and Investigation at the FCCPC, Boladale Adeyinka, disclosed this on Monday after sealing off the outlet.
She affirmed that the owner of the supermarket, Cindy Liu Bei, had fled before the arrival of the agency’s officials.
The FCCPC officials stormed the supermarket on Monday, April 22, 2024, barely 24 hours after the discriminatory practices of the outlet were reported on social media by Nigerians.
Four vandalised towers disrupt power supply to Gombe, Yola, Jalingo
The TCN General Manager, Public Affairs, Ndidi Mbah, disclosed this on Monday in a statement shared on the company’s official X handle, along with pictures of the vandalised towers.
According to the statement, the TCN noted that when the 330kV transmission line tripped, its operators attempted to restore it to service but it tripped again, prompting the dispatch of TCN lines men to trace the line to detect and rectify the fault.
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It said, “While fault tracing, TCN’s engineering crew discovered that towers 288, 289, 290, and 291 were vandalised and that some tower members were carted away. Also, the towers had equally collapsed as a result of the incident. Presently, bulk power supply to Gombe, Yola, and Jalingo substations have been disrupted, affecting bulk power supply to parts of Yola and Jos Electricity Distribution Companies’ franchise areas.’’
The TCN however stated that it was trying to first backfeed Gombe through its 132kV transmission line from Bauchi and subsequently Ashaka, Potiskum, Damaturu, and Billiri/Savannah, to mitigate the effect of the incident on electricity consumers affected by the incident.
The company assured that it would do everything to ensure restoration of electricity to the affected areas, while efforts were made to reconstruct the four vandalised towers.
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