THE AFRICAN COURIER. Reporting Africa and its Diaspora! The African Courier is an international magazine published in Germany to report on Africa and the Diaspora African experience. The first issue of the bimonthly magazine appeared on the newsstands on 15 February 1998. The African Courier is a communication forum for European-African political, economic and cultural exchanges, and a voice for Africa in Europe.
Members of the Coalition for Revolution movement and supporters of Omoyele Sowore, a prominent Nigerian journalist, human rights activist and pro-democracy campaigner currently detained by the government, carried out peaceful protests in three countries on Thursday.
The “#FreeSoworeNow Global Action” was carried out in Lagos, London and Rome.
They called for the release of Sowore and other activists detained by the Nigerian government as result of the #RevolutionNow protest of 5 August.
In Lagos, the Nigerian police had earlier laid siege at the Lagos office of SaharaReporters, an online news hub owned by Sowore. The police prevented the company’s staff members from gaining access into the office premises.
The security operative, in a bid to forstall the protest, also surrounded the premises of the Committee for the Defence of Human Rights (CDHR), a convergence centre for the protest in Adeniyi Jones area of Ikeja in Lagos.
But, the protesters defied police seige and embarked on the protest. They marched through Awolowo Way, in the Ikeja area of Lagos State, singing emancipation songs for Sowore’s release.
Co-convener of the movement, Seni Ajai, said that the protesters would not give in to threats from the government.
“We gathered somewhere else and continued the protest as planned,” said Ajai.
Similarly, the protest for Sowore’s freedom also held at the Nigerian High Commission in the United Kingdom and the country’s embassy in Rome, Italy. The protesters in UK said that lack of basic amenities in Nigeria was enough reason to organize a protest.
“We are calling on the Nigerian government to free Omoyele Sowore now and every other political prisoners that are held in captivity,” SaharaReporters quoted one of the protesters to have said.
Using the hashtag #FreeSoworeNow, the organizers, said the protest will also hold at the Nigeria embassies in Canada and the United Nations General Assembly in New York on September 19.
Raphael Adenaike
