Sowore May Be Knocked Down By Vehicle If Released By US, DSS Claims

In yet another ridiculous twist, the Department of State
Services on Tuesday said that it was yet to release pro-democracy
campaigner and Publisher of Sahara Reporters, Omoyele Sowore, from
its detention facility in Abuja because it doesn’t want him to get
knocked down by a vehicle on his way out.

Spokesperson for the agency, Peter Afunanya, also told
journalists in Abuja on Tuesday that Sowore’s lawyer, Femi Falana
(SAN), was yet to come fetch him from their facility.

Afunanya said, “We cannot just release Sowore and ask him to go
because he may be knocked down by a vehicle at the gate.”

Afunanya noted that Falana had not been to the headquarters of
the service since the activist was granted bail, a claim the
popular rights lawyer vehemently rejects.

Afunanya claimed that the DSS was following administrative
procedures by asking the sureties to come forward for proper
documentation.

He said, “We respect rules and orders of the court and there was
never a time the Director-General said he would not release
Sowore.”

The secret police continues to hold on to Sowore despite two
court orders directing it to release him after meeting bail
conditions on both occasions.

Femi Falana, senior advocate of Nigeria (SAN), says Yusuf Bichi,
director-general of the Department of State Services (DSS), has
stopped taking his calls.

“I confirm that I have an official relationship with the DG of
SSS. But since the commencement of the case of Sowore and Bakare
the DG has refused to pick my calls while I have since become a
persona non grata in the office of the SSS,” Falana said.

Sowore was arrested in Lagos on August 3, 2019 for calling on
Nigerians to take to the streets in peaceful demonstrations to
demand a better country from President Muhammadu Buhari’s
administration.

The purpose of the event with theme: Timely
Recognition Averts Deformity, sub-theme: Raise Awareness to Prevent
Noma, is to scale up awareness of the disease towards preventing
the disease in the country.

In his keynote address, the Minister of Health, Dr E.
Osagie Ehanire, said that Noma disease can be reduced and even
prevented, first by promoting national awareness of the disease and
improving nutrition including promoting exclusive breastfeeding in
the first six months of a child’s life.

He added that education on prenatal care, personal
hygiene, timely immunization against common childhood diseases,
improving environmental sanitation and poverty reduction are very
key while stressing that detecting Noma early and treating it can
halt and largely reverse the devastating impacts of the
disease.

While reiterating on the need to ensure that
immunization programmes reach all segments of the population, the
Minister charged participants drawn from over ten countries from
the African region to do their best to develop best practices in
preventing, controlling and managing Noma disease.

On the part of Nigeria, Ehanire disclosed that Nigeria
has established the National NOMA Control program in collaboration
with the WHO which aims to boost awareness of NOMA, its prevention
and care.

He also informed that the Health Ministry has embarked
on a number of national trainings, step down trainings and
sensitization activities in high burden States such as: Kebbi,
Sokoto, Jigawa and Akwa Ibom, in collaboration with the National
Orientation Agency and Nigerian Centre for Disease Control, to
increase surveillance, case finding and prompt disease
reporting.

 Ehanire further announced that the Federal
Ministry of Health, in collaboration with the World Health
Organization (WHO) and other stakeholders has developed the
National NOMA policy document and the triennial NOMA control action
plan [2019-2021] which was approved in the National council on
Health in August 2019.

 Earlier, the Permanent Secretary of the
Ministry, Mr. Abdulaziz M. Abdullahi, charged participants to
commit to finding workable ways to control and possibly kick out
the gory disease in the sub region, ensuring that the Ministry
would consider the outcome of the meeting for implementation with
relevant partners.

Also speaking, the WHO, officer-in-charge Nigeria, Dr.
Clement Peter, said ‘’NOMA has disappeared in the developed world
but 140,000 still suffer from Noma every year due to poverty and
malnutrition in the African Region. He however reiterated the
commitment of WHO to partner with Nigerian Government to ensure
that Noma is a disease of the past.