Omoyele Sowore, a well-known activist and 2023 presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC), has rejected the bail conditions set by the police. He described the conditions as illegal, ridiculous, and corrupt.
Sowore is currently in police custody after being charged with cyberstalking, negligence, and intimidation. His arrest came after a viral video showed him confronting police officers who stopped his car at a checkpoint in Lagos.
After his court appearance, the judge postponed the ruling on his bail request to Thursday, January 30. However, in a video statement, Sowore refused to accept the bail conditions.
He criticized the police for setting requirements that he believes promote corruption. One of the conditions demanded that a civil servant, who owns a property worth ₦100 million, should stand as his surety. Sowore argued that this requirement was unfair and unrealistic.
“I cannot participate in illegality,” he said. “The police have no right to ask for a surety who owns a ₦100 million house. That is corruption.”
Sowore further stated that even if President Bola Tinubu offered to be his surety, he would not accept it.
“It is an insult to ask me to provide a level 17 civil servant as my surety when I am an employer of labor,” he said. “Even if Tinubu himself appeared as my surety, I would still reject it.”
