Omoyele "Yele" Sowore (born 16 February 1971) is a Nigerian

human rights activist A human rights defender or human rights activist is a person who, individually or with others, acts to promote or protect human rights. They can be journalists, environmentalists, whistleblowers, trade unionists, lawyers, teachers, housing campai ...

and pro-democracy campaigner, known for founding the online news agency

Sahara Reporters Sahara Reporters is an online news agency based in New York City that focuses on promoting citizen journalism by encouraging everyday people to report stories about corruption, human rights abuses and other political misconduct in Africa, with s ...

. In August 2018, he founded the African Action Congress party and ran as its presidential candidate in the 2019 Nigerian general election. Sowore is also running for president in the

2023 Nigerian general election The 2023 Nigerian general election will be held, in large part, on 25 February and 11 March 2023. The President and Vice President will be elected on 25 February, with incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari ineligible to run, being term-limited. A ...

. On 3 August 2019, Sowore was arrested by the Nigerian State Security Service (SSS) for alleged

treason Treason is the crime of attacking a state authority to which one owes allegiance. This typically includes acts such as participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to overthrow its government, spying on its military, its diplo ...

after calling for a protest tagged ''RevolutionNow''. He was arrested again and beaten during a protest in

Abuja Abuja () is the capital and eighth most populous city of Nigeria. Situated at the centre of the country within the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), it is a planned city built mainly in the 1980s based on a master plan by International Plann ...

on 1 January 2021. Sowore was injured by a police officer during a protest in Abuja on 31 May 2021

Early life and education

Yele Sowore is from Ese-Odo,

Ondo State Ondo State ( yo, Ìpínlẹ̀ Oǹdó) is a state in southwestern Nigeria. It was created on 3 February 1976 from the former Western State. It borders Ekiti State to the north, Kogi State to the northeast, Edo State to the east, Delta State to t ...

in South West Nigeria. Sowore was born in the

Niger Delta The Niger Delta is the delta of the Niger River sitting directly on the Gulf of Guinea on the Atlantic Ocean in Nigeria. It is located within nine coastal southern Nigerian states, which include: all six states from the South South geopolitical ...

region of the country (comprising six states in South-South region,

Ondo Ondo may refer to: Japan * Ondo, Hiroshima * Ondo (music), a style of folk music * ''Ondo'' class oiler, ships of the Imperial Japanese Navy Nigeria * Ondo City * Ondo State * Roman Catholic Diocese of Ondo * Ondo Kingdom (c. 1510–1899) People ...

Abia Abia or ABIA may refer to: ABIA * Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, in Austin, Texas, United States * Australian Book Industry Awards, national literary and industry awards People * Abia (name) * Abia (mythology), the nursemaid of Glenus ...

and Imo States) where he was also raised in a

polygamous Crimes Polygamy (from Late Greek (') "state of marriage to many spouses") is the practice of marriage, marrying multiple spouses. When a man is married to more than one wife at the same time, sociologists call this polygyny. When a woman is ...

home with sixteen children. At 12, he learned to ride a motorcycle so that he could go to the lake to go fishing for food for his entire family every morning before going to school. Sowore's passion and desire in media was propelled during the military rule in Nigeria. Sowore studied

Geography Geography (from Greek: , ''geographia''. Combination of Greek words ‘Geo’ (The Earth) and ‘Graphien’ (to describe), literally "earth description") is a field of science devoted to the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, and ...

and Planning at the

University of Lagos The University of Lagos, popularly known as UNILAG, is a public research university located in Lagos, Nigeria and was founded in 1962. UNILAG is one of the first generation universities in Nigeria and is ranked among the top universities in th ...

from 1989 to 1995 with his academic program extended by two extra years after being expelled twice for political reasons and student activism. He was the President of the University of Lagos

Student Union A students' union, also known by many other names, is a student organization present in many colleges, universities, and high schools. In higher education, the students' union is often accorded its own building on the campus, dedicated to social, ...

Government between 1992 and 1994 where he was involved in anti-cultism and anti-corruption

advocacy Advocacy is an Action (philosophy), activity by an individual or advocacy group, group that aims to influence decision making, decisions within political, economic, and social institutions. Advocacy includes activities and publications to infl ...

. Sowore holds a

master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

in Public Administration from

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

Career

Activism

In 1989, he took part in student demonstrations protesting the conditions of an

International Monetary Fund The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is a major financial agency of the United Nations, and an international financial institution, headquartered in Washington, D.C., consisting of 190 countries. Its stated mission is "working to foster globa ...

(IMF) loan of $120 million to be used for a Nigerian oil pipeline. Included among the conditions of the IMF loan, was a reduction in the number of universities in Nigeria from 28 to 5. Sowore led 5,100 students in protest against the Nigerian government in 1992. The protest resulted in police opening fire and killing seven protesters. Sowore was arrested and tortured. Omoyele was also involved in the demand for democratic government taking over military rule on 12 June 1993. This resulted in several arrests, detentions and life-threatening treatment by government officials. A journalist, Niyi Babade, in his yet to be published memoir, also acknowledges Sowore's stride in the 12 June struggle - "Unannounced they came out of an unmarked grey vehicle and saw the ugly scenes then opened fire on all of us. I spent some quality time in my resting place the gutter till I heard the singing voices of the students of University of Lagos led by Yele Sowore (now a Sahara reporter) heading to Abiola’s house, I crawled out of my hiding and tried to get an exclusive shot when the hoodlums among the students attacked me and wanted to confiscate my camera but with the heroic effort of Sowore I was spared and allowed to join them as one of the hoodlums and a journalist which then gave me unlimited access to exclusive footage of the day till we got to Moshood Kashimawo Olawale (MKO) Abiola’s house."

Arrest

On 12 January 2017, the Lagos State Police Command arrested Sowore over a petition by a magazine publisher,

Lekan Fatodu Olalekan Fatodu is a Nigerian journalist, public relations expert and development practitioner. He is the Senior Special Assistant on Sustainable Development Goals (SDG's) to the Governor of Lagos State, Babajide Sanwo-Olu. Early life and ed ...

. Later in the evening of same day, Sowore confirmed the incident in a video he posted on his Facebook wall where he accused the police of supporting Fatodu while he assaulted him at the Area F Police Command.

Treason charges

Sowore was arrested by the DSS on 3 August 2019 ahead of a planned nationwide #RevolutionNow protest. The Federal Government, which later admitted to the arrest, was condemned by

Wole Soyinka Akinwande Oluwole Babatunde Soyinka (Yoruba: ''Akínwándé Olúwọlé Babátúndé Ṣóyíinká''; born 13 July 1934), known as Wole Soyinka (), is a Nigerian playwright, novelist, poet, and essayist in the English language. He was awarded t ...

Oby Ezekwesili Obiageli "Oby" Ezekwesili (born 28 April 1963) is an economic policy expert, an advocate for transparency, accountability, good governance and human capital development, a humanitarian and an activist. She is a former vice president for the Worl ...

and many other activists. He was later charged with "conspiracy to commit treason and insulting President

Muhammadu Buhari Muhammadu Buhari (born 17 December 1942) is a Nigerian politician and current president of Nigeria since 2015. Buhari is a retired Nigerian Army major general who served as the country's military head of state from 31 December 1983 to 27 Au ...

". On 24 September 2019, Sowore was granted bail by the Federal High Court Abuja, on the condition that he surrender his international passport within forty-eight hours. The DSS has refused to release Sowore claiming ignorance of the court order. The DSS' refusal to release Sowore led to protests at the UN Plaza in New York led by Sowore's wife and has sparked a global decry on Nigeria's failed democracy. On 29 September 2019, Sowore made his first appearance in the media since his detention. He described his poor treatment, being locked up in a dark room without the sunlight. He also mentioned that "

Boko Haram Boko Haram, officially known as ''Jamā'at Ahl as-Sunnah lid-Da'wah wa'l-Jihād'' ( ar, جماعة أهل السنة للدعوة والجهاد, lit=Group of the People of Sunnah for Dawah and Jihad), is an Islamic terrorist organization ...

commanders who are engaged in high level terrorism have access to telephone, TV and even cable in their cells" while he is being denied such access. The court again set Sowore free on 5 December 2019, confirming that he had settled his bail terms. However, there was a wind of change the next change in court when DSS operatives evaded the premises to re-arrest him. He was finally released on 24 December 2019. On 8 December 2021, The Federal High Court, Abuja, ordered the Department of State Services (DSS) to pay Omoyele Sowore, 2 million Naira over the unlawful seizure of his mobile phone in 2019 at the point of his arrest In March 2022 it was reported that Omoyele Sowore, has sued the Nigeria Police Force and three others at the Federal High Court, Abuja, over violation of his fundamental human right

Sahara Reporters

Sowore started

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

in 2006 to fight against corrupt and wrong government practices. Sahara Reporters is supported by grants from the

Ford Foundation The Ford Foundation is an American private foundation with the stated goal of advancing human welfare. Created in 1936 by Edsel Ford and his father Henry Ford, it was originally funded by a US$25,000 gift from Edsel Ford. By 1947, after the death ...

and

Omidyar Foundation Omidyar Network is a self-styled "philanthropic investment firm," composed of a foundation and an impact investing, impact investment firm. Established in 2004 by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar and his wife Pam, Omidyar Network has committed over ...

. As part of its policy, Sahara does not accept adverts and financial support from the Nigerian government.

Presidential campaign

On 25 February 2018, Sowore announced his intention to run for president in the 2019 Nigerian general election. In August 2018, he founded a

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology ...

, the African Action Congress (AAC), for which he will run for in 2019. On 6 October 2018, following successful

primary election Primary elections, or direct primary are a voting process by which voters can indicate their preference for their party's candidate, or a candidate in general, in an upcoming general election, local election, or by-election. Depending on the ...

s at the AAC's national convention, Omoyele Sowore emerged unchallenged as the Presidential Candidate for the party. After touring many states in Nigeria, visiting dignitaries such as the Emir of Kano and Wole Soyinka, Sowore embarked on a fundraising tour around the world including

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

, the

United States of America The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territo ...

and the UK. He was in

Luton Luton () is a town and unitary authority with borough status, in Bedfordshire, England. At the 2011 census, the Luton built-up area subdivision had a population of 211,228 and its built-up area, including the adjacent towns of Dunstable an ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, on 10 November 2018.

Election result

Muhammdu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress (APC), polled 15,191,847 votes to win while his main contender,

Atiku Abubakar Atiku is a given name and surname. It may refer to: Given name *Atiku Abubakar (born 1946), Nigerian politician and businessman, Vice President of Nigeria from 1999 to 2007 *Atikur Rahman Mallik, Bangladeshi film editor Middle name *Abubakar Atiku ...

of the

People's Democratic Party People's Democratic Party or ''variant thereof'', could refer to: * People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan *People's Democratic Party (Belize) *People's Democratic Party (Bhutan) *People's Democratic Party (Chile) * People's Democratic Party (Dom ...

got 11,264,977 votes to come second. Sowore came fifth with 33,953 votes ahead of other new entrants to the race like

Fela Durotoye Adetokunbo Olufela Durotoye (born in Ibadan, Oyo State on 12 May 1971) is a business consultant, leadership expert, and motivational speaker. Fela is the president of the GEMSTONE Nation Builders Foundation, a non-profit, non-governmental organiz ...

of the

Alliance for New Nigeria Alliance for New Nigeria (ANN) is a political party in Nigeria. It was founded in March, 2017 by some politically concerned Nigerians. The current National Chairman of the party is Mr. Emmanuel Dania. The party got officially registered and annou ...

(ANN), who polled 16,779, and Kingsley Moghalu of the Young Democratic Party (YPP), who garnered 21,886 votes. On 1 March 2022, Sowore announced his intention to run for president in the

Personal life

Sowore and his family have been residents of

Haworth, New Jersey Haworth ( ) is a borough in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the borough's population was 3,382,herdsmen or kidnappers in

Edo state Edo, commonly known as Edo State, is a state located in the South-South geopolitical zone of Nigeria. As of 2006 National population census, the state was ranked as the 24th populated state (3,233,366) in Nigeria, However there was controversy ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sowore, Omoyele 1971 births Living people People from Haworth, New Jersey People from Ondo State Nigerian activists Nigerian bloggers Nigerian human rights activists University of Lagos alumni School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University alumni Yoruba activists Nigerian newspaper founders Yoruba businesspeople Yoruba politicians Candidates for President of Nigeria 21st-century Nigerian politicians Amnesty International prisoners of conscience held by Nigeria