Yoruba traditional rulers, leaders must save Sowore ― Erelu Onaneye

Yoruba traditional rulers, elders and leaders of thought have been tasked to urgently intervene and save the publisher of Sahara Reporters, Omoyele Sowore, from an alleged plan to kill him while in incarceration.

Erelu Oodua Tinuade Onaneye, made the call in a statement made available to TribuneOnline, on Friday, saying Sowore was unjustly incarcerated and persecuted, as it was done to the acclaimed winner of the June 12, 1993, presidential election, the late Chief MKO Abiola.

Onaneye, based in Texas, USA, said the invasion and rearrest of Sowore by operatives of the Department of State Security (DSS) within the precincts of an Abuja Federal High Court, last Friday, was barbaric and an invitation to anarchy.

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She said Sowore was not the cause of the myriads of problems facing the country and called on the Yoruba traditional institution, leaders and elders to save him to avoid a repeat of what happened to Abiola who died in incarceration in 1998.

“The operatives of the DSS, in broad daylight, chased away all officials in the court including the judge with guns. This invasion and other actions of the DSS operatives are all invitations to anarchy.

“What the DSS operatives did was a complete desecration of our democratic tenets and legal order which needs to be condemned by every right-thinking Nigerian.

“Is Sowore the cause of insecurity, economic crunch, unabated corruption and other sundry problems that have bedevilled Nigeria over the years and which the government couldn’t resolve?

“This is a deliberate attempt by some northerners to deal with Sowore and, if care is not taken in Yoruba land, the unexpected would happen to that energetic, vibrant and promising gentleman who, at the moment, is our voice and a future Nigerian leader.

“It is on this note that I call on all Yoruba traditional rulers and elders to wake up from their slumbers to save this our innocent and promising child, Omoyele Sowore, from this innocuous act the northern hegemony have been meting on him for over four months.

“We all witnessed the case of MKO Abiola here in Nigeria and eventually we lost him. This is another similar case in our hands now. Our traditional leaders should act fast before it degenerates to an unwanted situation.

“If democracy is the system of government we have chosen to practise, then the responsibility lies on everybody, be its leaders and the led, to respect all the fundamentals of democracy and protect it against any form of rape,” she said.