The Federal High Court in Abuja, on Wednesdays, rescheduled the hearing of the suit filed by the police against Omoyele Sowore and other conveners of #FreeNnamdiKanuNow protest until Nov. 5.
The development followed the absence of the presiding judge, Justice Mohammed Umar, in court who was said to be sitting in Enugu division of the court.
The matter, which was on number 11 on the Wednesday’s cause list, was consequently fixed for Nov. 5 for hearing of the motion notice.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Justice Umar had, on Oct. 17, fixed Oct. 20 for the respondents in the police ex-parte motion to show cause why the interim order made by the court against the protesters should be vacated.
The hearing was, however, stalled as a result of the Oct. 20 protest which held same day, crippling the court activities at the Federal High Court in Abuja.
The judge had granted an interim order sought by the police, restraining Sowore and others from protesting for the release of Nnamdi Kanu in some sensitive areas in Abuja.
Justice Umar barred the protesters from demonstrating around the Aso Rock Villa, National Assembly, Force Headquarters, Court of Appeal, Eagle Square and Shehu Shagari Way, pending the hearing of the motion on notice.
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The judge also made an order of abridgement of time “within which the respondents will respond to the application on notice to cause the ex-parte order be set aside on Monday, the 20th of October, 2025 at 9.00am,” before adjourning until Oct. 20 for hearing of the motion on notice.
The order followed the ex-parte motion moved by the police lawyer, Wisdom Madaki, on behalf of Federal Republic of Nigeria (FRN), on Oct. 17.
The Police Force, in the ex-parte motion, marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/2202/2025, had sued Sowore, Sahara Reporters Ltd, and Sahara Reporters’ Media Foundation as 1st to 3rd respondents.
The force also joined Take It Back Movement (TIB), for the Transformation of Nigeria Or Any Form of Organisation or Any Other Person(s) Acting Either Express or Implied Instruction or Any Other Organisation or Group With the Like Intention; and Unknown Persons as 4th to 5th respondents respectively.
In the affidavit in support of the ex-parte motion deposed to by Bassey Ibithan, a police officer attached to Directorate of Legal Services, Force Headquarters, Abuja, the officer averred that if not granted, the protest might threaten the national security.
Sowore, publisher of Sahara Reporters, had planned to organised the protest for the release of Kanu, the detained leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).
Sowore, who was also the 2019 and 2023 presidential candidate of African Action Congress (ACC), had mobilised for what he called a planned peaceful protest against Kanu’s detention on Oct. 20.(NAN)
