No fewer than 48 rights and press freedom organisations have written to the United Nations and the African Union over the incarceration of Sahara Reporter Publisher, Omoyele Sowore.

In a statement signed by Idowu Olalere, communication director of Media Rights Agenda (MRA), one of the groups, said Sowore’s treatment amount to a violation of his right not to be arbitrarily detained, right to a fair trial, right to freedom of expression, right of freedom of peaceful assembly and of association, and his rights as a human rights defender.

The activist, who was the presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC) in the 2019 elections, was arrested by the Nigerian government over his planned nationwide #RevolutionNow protest.

He was subsequently accused by the DSS of endangering public peace and safety with the protest.

In spite of the public uproar, the federal high court in Abuja granted an application filed by the DSS to detain him for 45 days.

Sowore, through Femi Falana, his lawyer, had asked the court to annul the order granted DSS to detain him.

In an appeal filed to the UN and AU special mechanisms, the groups called for an intervention to see to the release of Sowore.

Olalere who Described Sowore as a proponent of democracy, said Othe motive of the protest was not to seek change of government but to demand that the Nigerian government end corruption and economic inequality and guarantee education to all.

In the petition prepared by Nani Jansen Reventlow from the London-based Doughty Street Chambers, the groups called on “the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, UN Special Rapporteurs on freedom of expression, freedom of peaceful assembly and of association, the situation of human rights defenders, and African Commission Special Rapporteurs on freedom of expression and human rights defenders to: intervene urgently to secure the immediate release of Mr Sowore; and declare his arrest and continuing detention a gross violation of his human rights.”

La Keisha Landrum Pierre, chief operating officer of Sahara Reporters, a newspaper founded by Sowore, also said Sowores’s arrest was a threat to press freedom.

She said “The arrest and detention of Sahara Reporter’s founder, Omoyele Sowore, is without doubt a threat to press freedom and investigative journalism in Nigeria,”

“Sowore has used the word ‘revolution’ contextually to mean ‘change for the better’ since he founded Sahara Reporters in 2006. He then stated that he would ‘revolutionise’ the way news is being reported: something he actually did by leading the pioneering efforts in citizen journalism in Nigeria. We are shocked that a government that rode to power on the promise to wipe out corruption and be the ‘voice of the voiceless’ is trying to silence the call for change by the same people who elected it.”

Joy Hyvarinen, head of advocacy at Index on Censorship, added that “the arrest and detention are a shocking violation of Mr Sowore’s human rights, which calls into question Nigeria’s willingness and ability to meet international human rights obligations.”

The DSS accused Sowore and Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the Independent People of Biafra (IPOB), of planning to overthrow President Muhammadu Buhari.