<\/p>\n
By Taiye Agbaje<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Abuja<\/strong><\/p>\n The Federal High Court in Abuja on Thursday threatened to foreclose Omoyele Sowore, publisher of Sahara Reporters\u2019 defence in the ongoing trial over alleged defamation.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Justice Mohammed Umar gave the warning after the Department of State Services (DSS)\u2019s lawer, Akinlolu Kehinde, SAN, made the oral appllication shortly after Sowore sought an adjournment over his lead counsel\u2019s absence.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Sowore, is also the presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC).<\/p>\n <\/p>\n He was alleged to have made false claims against the person of President Bola Tinubu by referring to him as \u201ca criminal\u201d in a post he made on his \u201cX\u201d and Facebook accounts.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Against this development, the DSS charged him with criminal defamation, cyberstalking and incitement.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n When the case was called on Thursday, though Sowore was in court, no lawyer appeared for him.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cWhere are your legal team?\u201d Justice Umar asked.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Responding, Sowore said:\u201dunfortunately, my lead counsel, Mr Adeyinka Olumide-Fusika, SAN, travelled to the UK with the knowledge of the court.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cOlumide-Fusika advised me to inform the court that he will not be available for today\u2019s hearing and he will like to handle this case because he is a skillful lawyer.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n He said besides, the junior lawyer, Reuben Adakole, was in another jurisdiction.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cI think the business of today is continuation of defence. That is my first submission my lord,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The judge then asked Sowore what he wanted.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cDo you want to proceed?\u201d Justice Umar asked.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Responding, Sowore said being a serious case, he would be asking for an adjournment.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cI will urge your lordship to adjourn the matter because it is a serious case and I will need lawyer to defend me,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The defendant also begged the court to allow him make another application.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n But the judge told Sowore that if he applied to make another application other than the issue of adjournment, that would mean that he has decided to represent himself in court.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cIf you want to take up the case let us know.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cIf you have any application to make, it means you are planning to defend yourself.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cIf you are seeking an adjournment that your counsel is not in court, that will be considered after hearing from the prosecution.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cBut if you are making an application, it means you are telling this court that you are taking over the defence on your own,\u201d thr judge said.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n In his response, the DSS\u2019 lawyer said that Sowore\u2019s application for adjournment would be the 11th time the trial would be adjourned at the instance of the defence.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cWith respect, this matter came up on July 13, 2027, and the defence counsel made an application for adjournment and the court adjourned to today because of the fact that their next set of witnesses are subpeaned witnesses and your lordship signed the subpeana.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThis same excuse was given that the lead counsel was absence at the last adjourned date and this court said that the absence of lead counsel cannot stop this proceeding.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Kehinde also argued that there was a subsisting order of the court that the trial is to be conducted day-to-day.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n He said today\u2019s application made it 11 times the defence would be making such request contrary to the provisions of Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA), 2015.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The senior lawyer submitted that it was crystal clear that Sowore was not ready to proceed with his defence.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n He, therefore, applied that his defence should be foreclosed.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cI urge your lordship, in the interest of justice which is a three-way traffic; justice for the prosecution, the defence and the society, to foreclose the defence and made a consequential order accordingly,\u201d he applied.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Ruling, Justice Umar said he will give Sowore the last opportunity in the interest of fair hearing.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cI have heard the application of the defendant, seeking for adjournment of the case on the basis that his lead counsel was not in court.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThe defendant cleary stated that this is a serious matter of which the lead counsel needs to give serious attention to same.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cI equally listened to counsel to the prosecution that this is the 11th adjournments and that the defendant\u2019s defence should be foreclosed.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cFair hearing demands that all parties be heard and defendant presents his defrnce before court,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The judge said though the court cannot enforce the defendant to defend himself, he would concede to Sowore\u2019s application for adjournment.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Justice Umar, however, warmed that if he failed to continue with his defence on the next adjourned date, his defence may be foreclosed.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The judge adjourned the matter until July 22 for definite continuation of defence.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n However, shortly after the ruling, Sowore indicated his interest to address the court and the judge granted him the leave.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The defendant therefore applied for his international passport to be submitted at the U.S. Embassy in order to address a family matter.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cI want to bring it to your lordship\u2019s attention a various serious issues.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cI have a family emergency which requires that my passport be given to U.S. Embassy so that my children in the U.S. can attend to some emergencies,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n But Justice Umar directed him to file a formal application in that regard and for the prosecution to also respond accordingly before his decision is made .(www.primerisenews.ng)<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Federal High Court in Abuja on Thursday threatened to foreclose Omoyele Sowore, publisher of Sahara Reporters\u2019 defence in the ongoing trial over alleged defamation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":128,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[18],"tags":[168,155,170,169],"class_list":["post-229","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-defence-and-security","tag-allegeddefamation","tag-court","tag-defence","tag-sowore"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/primerisenews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/WhatsApp-Image-2026-07-09-at-12.07.50.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/primerisenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/primerisenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/primerisenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/primerisenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/primerisenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=229"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/primerisenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":230,"href":"https:\/\/primerisenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229\/revisions\/230"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/primerisenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/primerisenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/primerisenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/primerisenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}