…‘My children missing their father’
Opeyemi, wife of Omoyele Sowore, convener of RevolutionNow movement, led a protest against President Muhammadu Buhari outside the UN headquarters in New York on Tuesday, according to CNN.
President Buhari is among the dignitaries attending the 74th session of the United Nations General Assembly. The Nigerian leader addressed the session earlier on Tuesday.
CNN said Opeyemi used the protest as an avenue to mount pressure on the Buhari administration to release her husband who has been in detention since August 3.
The Department of State Services had picked up Sowore in Lagos ahead of a planned nationwide #RevolutionNow protest in August.
Sowore, in his first conversation with the DSS, said he was rough handled by operatives of the Department of State Services at the time of his arrest in August.
His wife told CNN that she had been allowed only two phone conversations with her husband since his arrest.
“It is very sad to see the cause of action this has taken in the past one and a half months, especially for someone that was calling for a change for the better in Nigeria,” she was quoted to have said.
“It’s been almost two months since he walked out the door. Children are resilient in times like this, but they miss their father and are really hoping for his safe return.”
The DSS had initially obtained a court order to detain Sowore for 45 days. On Friday, Sowore was charged to court for “conspiracy to commit treason” and “insulting” Buhari.
But a federal high court in Abuja granted him bail on Tuesday and ordered his release to Femi Falana, his counsel.
Taiwo Taiwo, the presiding judge, said there was no longer a subsisting order holding Sowore whose wife had earlier said the government had no grounds to hold her husband.
