A Federal High Court in Abuja has granted Omoyele Sowore, Publisher of Sahara Reporters and former presidential candidate, bail in a cybercrime case instituted against him by Inspector General of Police Kayode Egbetokun.
Sowore stated on his X handle on Thursday that a condition to provide a civil servant as his surety was not part of the bail conditions.
“They granted the ‘bail’, but I am not going to be bailed out by a corrupt civil servant at Level 17 or 16, they got the memo and took the condition off their table,” he wrote.
READ ALSO: Police Detain Sowore, Request Passport as Bail
“Even, then they still targeted my international passport but that too they will never have!”
Under the leadership of Justice Musa Liman, the court mandated that he deposit his passport to the court and provide a surety capable of providing proof of landed property in the FCT worth N100 million.
Justice Liman allowed him 24 hours to be with his lawyers pending when the bail order would be perfected.
Egbetokun initiated the case because Sowore referred to him as an “illegal IGP”.
Had the National Assembly and President Bola Tinubu not hurriedly amended the Police Act, Egbetokun would have retired in September 2024.
FIJ reported that the Force Intelligence Department (FID) invited the publisher on Monday for questioning over his encounter with some policemen in Lagos State in early January.
READ ALSO: UPDATED: Egbetokun Files Criminal Charge Against Sowore for Calling Him ‘Illegal IGP’
The police later asked Sowore to produce a Level 16 civil servant and submit his international passport before he could be released. He rejected these bail conditions and insisted on being charged to court.
Rather than take him to court on the basis of the subject of the earlier invitation, Egbetokun surprised many Nigerians when he filed a 16-count charge at the court on Wednesday, saying Sowore violated the Cybercrime Act by branding him as an illegal IGP.
Application for the publisher’s bail was argued by Marshall Abubakar, his legal team lead, at the court on Wednesday and the court adjourned its ruling until Thursday.
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