In 2022, Omoyele Sowore accused the Federal Government of Nigeria —led by former President Muhammadu Buhari of having a hand in the death of Felix Olajide Sowore.
Olayomi Koiki
Today, Wednesday, 4 September 2024, makes it 3 years since the murder of Felix Olajide Sowore, the brother of a popular Nigerian human rights activist, Omoyele Sowore.
The late Olajide who was a student of Igbinedion University, Okada, Edo State, South-South Nigeria, was killed by gunmen suspected to be Fulani herdsmen on Saturday, 4 September 2021. Justice has not been served.
“My immediate younger brother, Olajide Sowore was today shot and killed near Okada in Edo state by reportedly herdsmen /kidnappers on his way from Igbinedion University in Edo state where he is studying Pharmacy,” Omoyele Sowore, 53, said at the time. “They snuffed out the life yet another real human being! Rest In Power, “Dr. Mamiye!” This act in itself will not delay their day of justice.”
However, in a Wednesday post on X, Omoyele Sowore said: “Today, I remember my lovely, enthusiastic and hardworking brother Felix Olajide Sowore, who was murdered by agents of the Nigerian state on September 4th 2021, on his way from school near Benin City.
“His murder remains unsolved because he was killed by those who should have done so, agents of the Mugammadu Buhari regime.
May his soul continue to torment his killers!”
Meanwhile, following the incident in 2021, the Edo State Governor Godwin Obaseki condoled with Omoyele Sowore, the publisher of Sahara Reporters, over the death of his brother, and assured the activist that the state government would work with relevant security agencies to investigate the incident and ensure that perpetrators were brought to justice.
In 2022, Omoyele Sowore accused the Federal Government of Nigeria —led by former President Muhammadu Buhari of having a hand in the death of Felix Olajide Sowore.
“Upon his gruesome murder our family made several efforts to resolve his murder by cooperating with the Nigeria Police Force, despite several meetings and phone conversations nothing concrete was done to unravel his killers except the police trying to cajole the family to bury him without carrying out an autopsy,” he said at the time. “Shortly after his burial, the Police presented photos of two young men they alleged were “Fulani herdsmen/kidnappers” they arrested in a forest. They stated that these men had “confessed” to killing my brother during a kidnapping operation at an abandoned Police check point near Benin City.
“They promised to commence prosecution in two weeks, that was in October 2021. We never heard back from the Nigeria police again”, Omoyele Sowore said.
Earlier in March 2024, Omoyele Sowore, 53 was allowed to return to his base in the United States after spending nearly five years in Nigeria, following incarceration by Muhammadu Buhari’s administration for starting a movement tagged #RevolutionNow.
A Federal High Court in Abuja had ordered the release of his passport after the Nigerian government had withdrawn its treasonable felony case against the human rights activist four years after it was seized and he was barred from leaving Nigeria.
The President Bola Tinubu-led government, in February – discontinued the treasonable felony case instituted against Omoyele Sowore.
The development was made known in a document issued by the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi.
The document dated February 15, 2024, was addressed to the Federal High Court of Nigeria, Abuja Division.
In the document, the government disclosed its intention to also discontinue the case against Sowore’s co-defendant, Olawale Bakare, aka Mandate.
Justice Emeka Nwite also ordered that Omoyele Sowore’s passport be released to him by the Department of State Services (DSS) which earlier seized it.
Meanwhile, in a September 6, 2021 publication by Vanguard newspaper, a mother of two, Emmanuella Anyanwu, who was reportedly kidnapped while her assailants killed the younger brother of Omoyele Sowore, narrated how she escaped from the kidnappers while in their custody in the forest.
Anyanwu narrated how their vehicle broke down near Okada on their way from Lagos. She said they slept inside the vehicle but were attacked by gunmen.
She said they were blindfolded and led into the bush.
“So they started calling us one after the other and I was the last person they called.
“They said if I don’t have money they will take my life. I asked them how much they wanted. But one of them was furious I was asking them questions. I told them I needed to know the ransom. They asked if I had N10m and I told them there was no way to get that kind of money.
“Then it started raining heavily and they went away and brought one man again. So they took something from that man and their attention was on it. So I remove my blind fold and decide to escape. I crept and that was how I escaped.”
– Insecurity and violence in Nigeria –
For more than a decade, civilians in Nigeria have faced multiple security threats and risk of atrocities as result of attacks, kidnappings and extortion by various non-state armed groups.
Since the start of 2024 civilians have faced intensified violence across Nigeria, and near-daily attacks by armed groups resulting in kidnappings and other abuses against civilians.
Armed groups and gangs, including so-called “bandits,” have – for many years – perpetrated widespread atrocities, including murder, rape, kidnapping, organized cattle-rustling and plunder. Armed herdsmen are also destroying vast swaths of farmland, prompting many farmers to abandon their land out of fear of attack.
A Nigerian soldier, Suleiman S., had alleged that the government’s practice of paying ransoms terrorists – dubbed as bandits in the country was hindering the military’s ability to effectively combat them.
He urged the public to redirect their blame from the Nigerian Army to the government, emphasising that soldiers are constrained by orders and cannot take independent action.
The soldier said the military has the capability to eradicate bandits, particularly in hotspots like Zamfara State forest within a week if given the necessary orders.
He expressed frustration that the military’s potential is being wasted due to a lack of direction from leadership, whom he accused of profiting from the ongoing crisis.
He cited the assassination of a monarch in Sokoto State, Alhaji Isa Muhammad Bawa as an example of a coordinated plan by certain individuals or groups to perpetuate insecurity.