Human rights lawyer, Mr. Femi Falana (SAN), said, on Thursday, 24rd July, 2020 that he declined a request made by a mediatory delegation to prevail upon the then detained Mr. Omoyele Sowore, to apologise to President Muhammadu Buhari. and a delegation led by late Ismaila Funta, while in detention of the Department of State Services, DSS, was full of falsifications.
Falana, in a statement, accused Shehu of attempting to distort the proceedings of the meetings.
The statement read “Mr. Garba Shehu has continued to give the highly erroneous impression that the deal struck with the captive was frustrated by his lawyer. Mr. Shehu’s memory failed him in his jejune narrative. ALSO READ: Alleged unlawful detention: Court to hear N1bn suit filed by Sowore, Bakare against DSS on March 25
“Mr. Shehu ought to have published the terms of the ‘resolution’ which he claimed that Mr. Sowore had accepted instead of blaming the collapse of the ‘fence-mending process’ on the intransigence of his lawyer ‘whoever that was (sic)’.
“I confirm that I held a meeting with the trio referred to by Mr. Shehu, even though he did not mention my name. “Hence, I am compelled to react to a couple of issues raised in his incendiary account. More so that he did not attend the Lagos meeting.
“For reasons best known to Mr. Shehu, he refused to inform the Nigerian people that I rejected the gratuitous request to prevail on Mr. Sowore to apologise to President Muhammadu Buhari and write an undertaking to desist from further embarrassing the Federal Government.
“Apart from insisting that my client had committed no offence by exercising his freedom of expression over the perilous state of the nation, I expressed my personal agony over the request because I won the legal battle wherein the Court of Appeal had upheld the fundamental right of the Nigerian people to protest against the government without a police permit.
“Mr. Shehu ought to have equally disclosed that I demanded the unconditional release of my client from the unlawful incarceration of the DSS.
“In fact, when the late Alhaji Isa Funtua said rather condescendingly at the Lagos meeting that the regime in power could not be defeated, I was quick to remind him that the Nigerian people had defeated military dictators to pave way for the current civilian dispensation.”
“In particular, I recalled the case of Isa Funtua vs the President wherein the plaintiff had challenged the obnoxious newspaper registration decree enacted by the Ibrahim Babangida Junta In 1993, for goodness sake, is Mr Shehu not aware of the fact that Mr Sowore was charged with treasonable felony, money laundering and insulting President Buhari for daring to call off the bluff of the Federal Government?
It is interesting to note I had tea up with other patriots in 2006 to campaign for the restoration of the Liberty of Mr Garba Shehu (who was then the spokesman for Alhaji Atiku Abubakar) when he was detained by the State Security Service and charged before the Federal High Court with offence of “Obtaining, reproducing and keeping classified material” in contravention of the official secrets act.
“Happily, the charged filed against Mr Shehu By The Forces of incipient Fascism in the country was withdrawn and struck out in his favour, In like manner, The charge of treasonable felony which is hanging menacingly on the head of Mr Omoyele Sowore like a sword of damocles will also be struck out in his favour in the fullness of time.”
