The wife of detained activist and Publisher of Saharareporters, Omoyele Sowore, Opeyemi has alleged that she and her two children have only been able to speak with her husband twice, by phone, since his arrest on 2 August in Lagos.
She also claimed that on the two occasions the calls were heavily monitored by government officials.
According to Mrs. Sowore, after she gave an interview to a U.S. based nonprofit broadcast outlet Democracy Now!, the Nigerian government cut off all communication with the detained activist.
Sowore has used the word “revolution” to promote democratic governance, including in the protest he was organizing in August, which called for education, security, infrastructure and fair wages, Opeyemi Sowore said, but the Nigerian government, she said, sees the term as negative.
Opeyemi Sowore called the charges against her husband “frivolous” and said they also stemmed from his criticism of the Nigerian president during a TV interview and movement of between $15,000 and $16,000 to a Nigerian bank to pay salaries of Sahara Reporters journalists working in Nigeria, she said.
“This is basically a violation of his human rights,” Opeyemi Sowore said.
Sowore and his wife in normal times live in Haworth, in Bergen county in New Jersey. She said Sowore was in Nigeria on a business trip when he was arrested.
Mrs. Sowore said on the day her husband was arrested on 2 August, she got a text message from him saying ‘I love you’.
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