Sowore’s trial will tarnish your image, Shehu Sani tells Buhari

Senator Shehu Sani has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to drop all the charges against the presidential candidate of Africa Action Congress and publisher of SaharaReporters  Omoyele Sowere.

Sani said the allegations against Sowore will only stain and dent Buhari’s image.

“The trial is unnecessary and uncalled for, it would only further stain the human rights record of this administration and diminish and dent the moral standing of our country,” Sani said in a statement.

He noted that Sowore’s charges amounts to electrocution of freedom, as the democratic credentials of any elected government is not simply about the legitimacy of its mandate, but about the degree of its tolerance to dissent and its compliance with the fundamental principles of freedom.

Sowore was arrested by Nigeria Department of State Services on treason allegation after calling for a protest tagged #RevolutionNow. He has now spent 45 days in detention.

“There is a climate of fear, intimidation and intolerance in the country and this contradicts the philosophy of progressivism the ruling party establishment purports,” Sani said.

“The President’s desire to build and leave behind an anti corruption legacy and tower should not be cited in the Human rights graveyard.

“If the ruling establishment is confident of its moral standing and support base, it should defeat Sowore with superior ideas and not persecute him.

“Our Democracy is becoming is becoming inhabitable and inhospitable to its ideal content.

“When a state equates dissent to disloyalty, it progressively decays under the weight of its courtiers.”