#FreeNnamdiKanuNow: Court hears police suit against Sowore, others October 29

The Federal High Court in Abuja has fixed October 29, 2025, for the hearing of the suit filed by the police against Omoyele Sowore and other conveners of #FreeNnamdiKanuNow protest held on Monday.

The suit, which was earlier scheduled for Monday for the respondents in the ex-parte motion to show cause why the interim order made by the court should be vacated, could not proceed.

The hearing was stalled as a result of the protest which held same day, crippling the court activities at the Federal High Court in Abuja.

Justice Mohammed Umar had made an interim order restraining Sowore and others from protesting for the release of Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) leader Nnamdi Kanu in some sensitive areas in Abuja.

Justice Umar barred the protesters from demonstrating around the Presidential Villa, National Assembly, Force Headquarters, Court of Appeal, Eagle Square, and Shehu Shagari Way, pending the hearing of the motion on notice.

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 October 20 for hearing of the motion on notice.

Police arrest Sowore in Abuja

The order followed the ex-parte motion moved by the police lawyer, Wisdom Madaki, on behalf of Federal Republic of Nigeria (FRN), on Friday.

The police, in the ex-parte motion sued Sowore, Sahara Reporters Limited, and Sahara Reporters’ Media Foundation as first to third respondents.

Sowore, the 2019 and 2023 presidential candidate of African Action Congress (AAC), had mobilised for what he called a planned peaceful protest against Kanu’s detention on Monday.

Some persons were reported to have been arrested during the protest, including Kanu’s lawyer, Aloy Ejimakor, who are billed for arraignment at a Magistrate Court sitting in the Kuje area of Abuja on Friday, October 24.

Sowore was, earlier on Thursday, whisked away from the precincts of the Federal High Court in Abuja by armed policemen, shortly after he made an appearance for Kanu, whose case was heard in court.

He was accosted by the security operatives who insisted he must move with them to the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Police Command Headquarters.