Live Rounds Fired at Protest in Abuja

On Tuesday agents from Nigeria’s Department of State Services (DSS) reportedly fired live rounds to disperse protestors in the nation’s capital, Abuja, following unrest over the continued detention of journalist Omoyele Sowore.

A court granted Sowore bail last Friday, but the DSS did not release him because they said no one had come to claim him.

That contradicts Sowore’s lawyers, who say they were denied access when they went to collect him from jail.

They reported that “On Saturday morning, lawyers and activists stormed the facility to take Sowore home but were met with stiff resistance by operatives, who said they had no clearance to let him go”. 

Founder of the New York-based Sahara Reporters, activist and journalist Sowore was arrested in Lagos in August after he called for a revolution, facing charges of treason, money laundering and “cyberstalking”.

This is now the second time Sowore has been granted bail but not been released.

No deaths were reported following Tuesday’s demonstration, but a journalist from Nigeria’s Guardian newspaper was beaten up by members of the DSS.