The Federal High Court in Lagos declared on Friday that the Nigerian police’s designation of human rights activist and Sahara Reporters publisher Omoyele Sowore as a wanted person in Lagos last year was illegal and violated the Nigerian constitution.
The judge, Musa Kakaaki awarded N30 million in damages against the Nigeria Police Force, Inspector-General of Police Kayode Egbetokun and Lagos State Commissioner of Police Moshood Jimoh for unlawfully pronouncing Mr Sowore a wanted person.
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Mr Kakaaki, according to the details of the judgement shared by Mr Sowore’s lawyer, held that no Nigerian can be criminalised for speaking, protesting, or holding the government accountable.
Mr Jimoh, the Lagos police commissioner, publicly declared Mr Sowore wanted on 3 November 2025 for attempting to lead a protest on the Third Mainland Bridge over the demolition exercise in poor settlements of Oworonshoki in the state.
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Prior to that pronouncement, Mr Jimoh, earlier in October 2025, ordered the activist and former presidential candidate to stay away from Lagos.
Displeased with Mr Jimoh’s pronouncement, Mr Sowore sued him alongside the IGP and the Nigerian police.
The suit sought to enforce Mr Sowore’s constitutional rights to dignity, liberty, freedom of movement, expression, and peaceful assembly as guaranteed under the Nigerian constitution and the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights.
In an affidavit accompanying the suit, Mr Sowore said the police declared him wanted without any prior invitation, warrant, or formal charge.
He argued, through his team of lawyers led by Tope Temokun, that the police action impaired his constitutional rights and unlawfully damaged his reputation as a journalist, activist, and former presidential candidate.
He added that he would have honoured any lawful invitation extended to him.
Mr Sowore asked the court to restrain the police from harassing, intimidating, or arresting him and to set aside the public declaration labelling him “wanted.”
He also prayed for an order awarding N500 million in general and exemplary damages against the defendant “for the unlawful, unconstitutional, and oppressive violation” of his fundamental rights.
The police opposed the suit, insisting that Mr Jimoh validly declared Mr Sowore wanted.
Their defence echoed Mr Jimoh’s claim after Mr Sowore filed his suit, maintaining that he had the legal authority to declare Mr Sowore wanted and urged critics to seek redress in court.
Speaking on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily on 5 November, Mr Jimoh said Mr Sowore failed to report to the police as allegedly agreed by his lawyer.
“My declaration that Sowore is wanted is still in force,” he said.
The commissioner stated that Mr Sowore’s lawyer contacted him via text while he was responding to a riot and referred him to the Officer-in-Charge of Legal.
According to him, the lawyer agreed that Mr Sowore would appear at the State Criminal Investigation Department, Yaba, where the investigation is being handled.
“But throughout yesterday, he failed to report,” he said. “We will do everything within the ambit of the law to get him arrested, investigated, and prosecuted.”
The commissioner also dismissed Mr Sowore’s allegation that the Inspector-General of Police ordered that he be “shot on sight.”
He described the claim as “major misinformation,” insisting that the IGP would never issue such an order.
‘Lagos CP was lawless’
Delivering judgement on Friday, the judge condemned the lawlessness of the Commissioner of Police and held the Inspector-General of Police accountable for that misconduct.
The judge held that the permission of a court of law was required to declare a citizen wanted.
According to Mr Kakaaki, who traced the history of declaring citizens as wanted in Nigeria, the law has since evolved. He said that to declare a person wanted, there must first be an issuance of a warrant, proper notice, and proof that a citizen is evading lawful process before the court, if convinced, will give the nod to the police or any agency interested in issuing the declaration to proceed.
The court ruled that Mr Jimoh’s warning on 27 October 2025, ordering Mr Sowore to stay away from Lagos, was arbitrary, unconstitutional, and beyond police powers.
He added that the public declaration of 3 November 2025 designating the activist as wanted was illegal, ultra vires, unconstitutional, and a grave abuse of power.
Sowore, lawyer react
Reacting to the judgement, Mr Sowore’s lawyer, Mr Temokun, described it as “a loud constitutional warning against the abuse of state power in Nigeria.”
“The misconduct of the Commissioner of Police, Lagos State, attracted judicial condemnation, and the Inspector-General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, was held liable for that improper exercise of authority,” he wrote on Facebook on Friday.
Mr Temokun, who hailed the judgment for restoring constitutional order, also said, “We salute the courage of the Court for standing firmly on the side of justice, liberty, and constitutional governance.”
For his part, Mr Sowore, who also hailed the verdict on social media, rode the wave of the judicial victory to deliver his characteristic rebuke of the Nigerian police and the IGP Egbetokun leadership.
He said the judgement “delivered a resounding blow this morning to their tyranny.”
Mr Sowore, who faces multiple charges filed by the Nigerian police amid a running battle with the police under Mr Egbetokun, said the judgement was clear, firm, and excruciatingly loud in its message: abuse of power has consequences.
The activist contrasted the judgement with a court order stopping him from further referring to Mr Egbetokun as ‘Illegal IGP’ and from making “defamatory remarks” about the police chief, his son, Victor, and a police officer, Bukola Kuti.
PREMIUM TIMES reported that the trio recently obtained the gag order against Mr Sowore.
In a statement celebrating his Friday’s court victory, Mr Sowore still referred to Mr Egbetokun as an illegal IGP despite the court order.
“While the illegal IGP Kayode Egbetokun was busy running from courtroom to courtroom, desperately shopping for ex parte orders to cover ip monumental police illegalities, Justice Musa Kaakaki of the Federal High Court in Ikoyi, Lagos delivered a resounding blow this morning to their tyranny,” he wrote on Facebook.
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Mr Sowore had alleged in a post on X in the wake of the police declaring him wanted that he was specifically targeted by the police during the anti-demolition protest.
“In Lagos earlier today, I was targeted by @PoliceNG during an anti-demolition protest in Oworonshoki. The deadly squads were sent by Kayode Egbetokun, the illegal Inspector General of Police,” he wrote.
But, denying the allegation on a live television programme, the Lagos State police commissioner, Mr Jimoh, said, “For him to say that the IGP ordered that he be shot is mischievous,” Mr Jimoh said. “It shows Sowore is planning—and has even begun—to cause mayhem across Lagos. That is why I declared him wanted.”
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