JUST IN: Atiku Breaks Silence on Sowore’s Arrest, Condemns Silencing of Opposition

Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has reacted to the detention of Omoyele Sowore, a former presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC), by the police.

Sowore was arraigned on a 16-count charge bordering on alleged cybercrime on Wednesday.

He was detained after honouring a police invitation on Monday.

Reacting, Atiku took to his social media handle on X to express his outrage over Sowore’s arrest, which he believes is part of a larger campaign to silence the opposition.

“When I made the clarion call that Tinubu and the APC were devoting their energies to the systematic harassment, intimidation, and dismantling of the opposition, I became the target of vicious attacks,” Atiku wrote.

He condemned the arrest and baseless prosecution of Sowore, calling it “the latest chapter in this unrelenting campaign” to stifle dissenting voices.

His statement reads in full:

“When I made the clarion call that Tinubu and the APC were devoting their energies to the systematic harassment, intimidation, and dismantling of the opposition, all in service of their grand design for a one-party autocracy, I became the target of vicious attacks. The arrest and baseless prosecution of @YeleSowore is the latest chapter in this unrelenting campaign. Now, they have seen fit to add Professor Usman Yusuf — an outspoken critic of this administration —  into their grim roster. At the pace they are going, it seems they may soon find themselves contending with the incarceration of every one of us.”