The repressive machinery of the Nigerian state has once again barred its fangs at Omoyele Sowore, Convener of the revolutionary Take It Back global movement (TIB). The Nigeria Police Force slammed Sowore, who is also National Chair and former presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC) with a 17-count cybercrime charge at the Federal High Court Abuja, in the last week of January. He was granted bail to the tune of N10 million, but his passport was seized. The substantive case continues in court in April. But Sowore’s application for the release of his passport towards enforcement of his right to freedom of movement, was rejected on Tuesday 4 March, by the Federal High Court, Abuja.
Several governments since the military dictatorship have wielded the state’s instruments of suppression to repress Sowore’s activist spirit over the years, to no avail. This has gotten more intense since 2019 when he launched the #RevolutionNow campaign. He was arrested at the time and illegally held for four months on treason charges.
He was released from this illegal detention only due to sustained nationwide and global protests. He was then confined, first to Abuja until just before the 2023 elections, when he was allowed to travel to other parts of the country to campaign as presidential candidate of the AAC.
The bone of contention with the current travail he faces has to do with the illegitimate extension of the tenure of Mr Kayode Egbetokun as the Inspector General of Police. According to the Nigeria Police Force, Sowore’s description of Egbetokun as “illegal IG” on his “verified X handle account” on “the 13th day of December 2024”, “was intended to cause a breakdown of law and order” and is “an offence contrary to Section 24(1)(b) of the Cybercrime (Prohibition, Prevention, Etc.) Act, 2015, as amended (2024)”.
President Bola Tinubu, Mr Egbetokun and the Nigerian police may have dragged Sowore to court of law, but they have equally dragged themselves to the court of history where they sit in the dock of infamy. There are a number of matters arising, and charges posterity will level against them.
These include the use of a so-called cybercrime prohibition and prevention law to repress views critical of the misdeeds of the state and those in power, the very question of the illegitimacy of the continued stay of Mr Egbetokun as Inspector General of Police, and the underlying interests of the presidency in going down this dark road.
Cybercrime Act: an instrument of “suffocating repression”
The Cybercrime Act has been “a tool for repression, not protection”. As the Punch stated its 12 February editorial “the recent arrest of activist and publisher Omoyele Sowore by the police once again underscores the growing use of the Cybercrime Act as a tool of suffocating repression.” The national daily added that Sowore’s arrest “is far from an isolated case”, pointing out that the state weaponises the legislation “against activists, journalists, and ordinary citizens for expressing dissenting views”.
It would appear that members of the Take It Back movement are being particularly targeted for their radical politics and expression of anger at the status quo.
Comrade Olamide Thomas, a rank-and-file nurses’ leader and member of the Take It Back movement was arrested for “insulting” Seyi Tinubu, president Tinubu’s son in December.
Olumide Ogunsanwo (aka SeaKing) a popular TitToker who is also a Take It Backer was arrested in January, allegedly for making disparaging statements about Enoch Adeboye, General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG). The IGP, Mr Egbetokun worships in this church and appears to be an ordained pastor there.
The Act has been used to prosecute at least 25 journalists over the last ten years. These include journalists who are also members of the Take It Back movement, such as Agba Jalingo, publisher of the Cross River Watch. He crimes were drawing attention to Governor Ayade’s misappropriation of N500 million and pointing out that the then governor’s sister-in-law had contracted someone to write her law exams for her. After spending 179 days in jail in the first instance, and then another six months, he was acquitted of the spurious charges of cybercrime and terrorism levelled against them.
The Cybercrime Act is antithetical to citizens’ enjoyment of democratic rights won through decades of struggle against colonial rule and military dictatorship. It must be scrapped. TIB has rightfully condemned the Act and called for its immediate and unconditional repeal.
The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has also dragged the federal government of President Tinubu and 36 governors to the ECOWAS Court over “the repressive use of the Cybercrimes (Amendment) Act 2024 to criminalise legitimate expression” of dissenting views.
It will be recalled that the ECOWAS Court “ordered Nigerian authorities to stop using section 24 of the Cybercrime Act 2015 to prosecute anyone on the grounds of insulting or stalking officials online” in a landmark judgment on 25 March 2022. This is the same section of the nefarious Act that Omoyele Sowore is being charged with.
Egbetokun’s tenure: history, legality, legitimacy and the 2027 elections
The issues at stake which the government does not want Sowore and critical minds to unpack are: the illegitimacy of Egbetokun as IGP, the history of IGPs tenure elongation before now, the peculiarities of this particular case and the underlying reasons why president Tinubu amended the law to enable Egbetokun stay as IGP till September 2027.
The police is the most visible and publicly used repressive apparatus of the state. The nature of Nigeria’s ruling class politics (and the related economics of corruption) have underscored the importance of those in the top echelons of the police force. Over the last thirteen years, controversy in one form or the other around the tenure of the IGP has been the norm. These have been driven by the political interests of the government in power and desires of serving IGPs to continue “chopping” But popular pushback too had been impactful at an earlier point.
Public outcry made President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan and Major general Muhammadu Buhari (retd) to stop the steps they were taking to extend the tenures of IGPs Mohammed Abubakar and Ibrahim Kpotun Idris in 2013 and 2019 respectively.
Then in 2021 Major general Buhari extended the tenure of Mohammed Adamu as IGP by three months despite a lawsuit against this by the Nigeria Bar Association. Again in 2023, he also elongated the tenure of Usman Alkali Baba, even though the Police Service Commission insisted that it was against the spirit and letters of the law. Condemnable enough as Buhari’s actions were, he was not as brazen, nor were the tenure elongations -in relation to when those IGPs were to leave office – anywhere near as extensive as what Tinubu has bestowed on Egbetokun.
Section 18(8) of the Police Act, 2020 clearly stated that “every police officer shall, on recruitment or appointment, serve in the Nigeria Police Force for a period of 35 years or until he attains the age of 60 years, whichever is earlier”. He was thus expected to retire on 4 September 2024 when he would be 60 years old
Section 7(6) of the Act equally says “the person appointed to the office of the Inspector-General of Police shall hold office for four years”. But, considering the fact that the person so appointed is first and foremost a police officer, there had been no ambiguity about the fact that where and when the person’s four year tenure extended beyond her/his clocking 60 years of age or 35 years in service, this amounted to an elongation of service. Tinubu wanted no ambiguity in pursuit of his nakedly self-serving agenda.
Mr Tinubu appointed Egbetokun as IGP within a few weeks of being sworn-in as president. And he ensured the swift amendment of the Act in July 2024, barely two months before Egbetokun’s sixtieth birthday. Like his predecessors, particularly Major general Muhammadu Buhari (retd), Bola Tinubu wants an IGP who is loyal to him. But even more than them, he wants somebody whose loyalty is first and foremost to him, if need be even before loyalty to the state; especially for the 2027 presidential election.
We must recall that Egbetokun, who was a deputy superintendent of police at the time, was made the chief security officer to Bola Tinubu in 1999, even before he was sworn in as governor of Lagos state.
They do not only have a long history, Tinubu can also be rest assured about the ruthlessness Egbetokun could bring to bear to defend his principal’s interest. He was at different times Squadron Commander of the anti-riot MOPOL known as “kill-and-go”, and the Commander of the Rapid Response Squad (RRS) in Lagos state.
The RRS was created as Operation Sweep by Colonel Buba Marwa who is currently chair of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA). At the time he was governor of Lagos state after serving as governor of Borno state. There are allegations that Buba Marwa delivered the parcel bomb that killed the Newswatch editor, Dele Giwa, on 19 October 1986, on the instructions of General Ibrahim Babangida, the military president.
Tinubu changed the name of Operation Sweep to the Rapid Response Squad, because of the sheer terror associated with it. In its heydays, the brutality of Operation Sweep made the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) seem like the boy scouts club. The name change did not its spirit change.
It is an Egbetokun from both the traditions of this blood-soaked monstrous squad and the “kill-and-go” MOPOL that Tinubu is so desperate to have as the chief police man for the rigging galore we should be expecting in two years’ time, if we dare go to sleep.
Conclusion
The All Progressives Congress has shown itself no better than the PDP. And with each successive government the party’s regime becomes more authoritarian, as it makes living more challenging for the vast majority of the people. Repression flourishes when it is not challenged.
Speaking the truth to power and challenging the illegitimacy of the regime’s actions such as the tenure elongation of Egbetokun and use of the cybercrime act to suppress contrary views are essential. These are crucial for defending and expanding the democratic rights we won with blood from the jaws of military dictatorship. That is the significant of the politics of Omoyele Sowore. That is the pathway to winning our liberation.
Working-class people’s organisations and the radical left must demand that Egbetokun step aside as IGP. His primary role as we move towards the 2027 elections is to serve as Tinubu’s bulldog for re-election. It is a shame that a supposedly opposition party like the Labour Party would rather condemn critics of the extension instead of standing up against it.
The cybercrime act must also be done away with. It must be jettisoned in line with the ruling of the ECOWAS Court. The sham charges against Omoyele Sowore must be dropped forthwith, and his right to enjoy the constitutionally enshrined freedoms of movement, expression and conscience. duly respected by the Nigerian state.
by Bàbá AYÉ
