The protesters were carrying placards emblazoned with different inscriptions like #EdnSARSNow, WeDontNeedSARS etc and were raucously chanting.

With many Police officers barricading them from entering the headquarters, the protesters demanded for the presence of IGP Adamu.

They were calling President Muhammdu Buhari’s name, urging him to end SARS now.

Recall that Adamu had informed Nigerian youths that their voices and complaints on the issues of unprofessional conducts by some SARS operatives have been heard very loudly and clearly.

On that note he banned the personnel of the Federal Special Anti-Robbery Squad (FSARS) and other Tactical Squads of the Force including the Special Tactical Squad (STS), Intelligence Response Team (IRT), Anti-Cultism Squad and other Tactical Squads operating at the Federal, Zonal and Command levels, from carrying out routine patrols and other conventional low-risk duties – stop and search duties, checkpoints, mounting of roadblocks, traffic checks, etc – with immediate effect.

Most of the women numbering about 30 were decked in white wrappers and bra but with no clothes covering the rest of the upper parts of their bodies.

Sowore and his co-detainee, Adebayo Bakare, were produced in court on Thursday, with the judge, Justice Ijeoma Ojukwu, ordering the DSS to release them from the illegal detention within 24 hours.

Their trial on charges of treasonable felony was scheduled to commence on Thursday but the court had to adjourn till Friday due for report of compliance with the fresh order for the defendants’ release.

The protesting women who arrived in the court environment after the proceedings started on Thursday, were not allowed entry into the court premises.

But they stayed by the gate brandishing their placards with various inscriptions calling for Sowore’s release and only departed long after the proceedings had ended and Sowore with his co-detainee returned to custody by the DSS operatives.

In their Apoi dialect the women, many of them with grey hair, described themselves as beneficiaries of Sowore philanthropic gestures and appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari to release their son from custody.

Sowore is asking the court to order the DSS to pay him N500m as general and aggravated damages over his detention which he termed as an illegal violation of his fundamental rights.

This is contained in a suit marked FHC/ABJ /C51409/2019, and supported by a 21-paragraph affidavit deposed to by Abubakar Marshall and accompanied by a written address, Saharareporters reports.

According to the suit: “A declaration that the detention of the applicant from November 7, 2019 till date in violation of the order for his release made on November 6, 2019 is illegal as it violates his fundamental right to liberty guaranteed by Section 35 of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended) and Article 6 of African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (Ratification and Enforcement Act (CAP A10) Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004.

“An order of this court compelling the respondents to pay to the applicant the sum of N500,000, 000, 00 ( Five hundred million naira) as general and aggravated damages for the illegal violation of the applicant’s fundamental right to life, dignity of his person, fair hearing, health, freedom of movement and freedom of association.

“An order of perpetual injunction restraining the respondents from further violating the applicant’s fundamental rights in any manner whatsoever and however without lawful justification.”

Recall that Sowore was arrested in Lagos on August 3, 2019, for calling for a revolution in Nigeria, meanwhile, a Federal High Court in Abuja had recently ordered his release alongside Olawale Adebayo.

However, the DSS was yet to comply with the order and claimed that no surety had come to take Sowore on bail, adding that it will release Sowore if his sureties come forward for documentation.

Soyinka, in a statement he personally issued late Tuesday night said it should become abundantly clear by now that Civil Society Organisations, committed to the entrenchment of the Rule of Law and the defence of fundamental human rights must come together.

Read the statement below
“This is not a new cry. They must meet, debate, and embark on a binding pact of tactical responses whenever these two pillars of civilized society are besieged by the demolition engines of state security agencies. The sporadic, uncoordinated responses as in the case of Omoyele Sowore, the absence of a solid strategy, ready to be activated against any threat these continue to enable these agencies in their mission to enthrone a pattern of conduct that openly scoffs at the role of the judiciary in national life. Result? A steady entrenchment of the cult of impunity in the dealings of state with the citizenry both individuals and organizations. The level of arrogance has crossed even the most permissive thresholds. It is heart-warming to witness the determined efforts of “Concerned Nigerians” in defence of these rights. Why the desperation? The answer is straightforward: the government never imagined that the bail conditions for Sowore would ever be met. Even Sowore’s supporters despaired. The bail test was clearly set to fail! It took a while for the projection to be reversed, and it left the DSS floundering. That agency then resorted to childish, cynical lies. It claimed that the ordered release was no longer in their hands, but in Sowore’s end of the transfer. The lie being exploded, what next? Bullets of course. As I remarked from the onset, this is an act of government insecurity and paranoia that merely defeats its real purpose. And now – bullets? This is no longer comical. Perhaps it is necessary to remind this government of precedents in other lands where, even years after the event, those who trampled on established human rights that generate homicidal impunity are called to account for abuse of power and crimes against humanity. The protests for Sowore’s release go beyond only acts of solidarity, they are manifestations of the judgment and authority of courts of law, under which this nation is supposedly governed. Either it is, or it isn’t. The answer stares us all in the face. The principles that now fall under threat implicate more than one individual under travail. They involve the very entitlement of a nation to lay claim to membership of any democratic, humanized union. Enough of this charade, nothing more than a display of crude, naked power. Release Omoyele Sowore and save us further embarrassment in the regard of the world. An apology to the nation by the DSS and the judiciary would also not be out of place. It would go some distance in redeeming the image of an increasingly fascistic agency and reduce the swelling tide of public disillusionment. Let the rule of law reign. Failing that, have the honesty to proclaim the death of ordered society. Then we’ll all know just where we stand.