The Federal High Court in Abuja on Wednesday postponed the hearing of the case filed by the police against Omoyele Sowore and other organisers of the #FreeNnamdiKanuNow protest until November 5.
The adjournment came due to the absence of the presiding judge, Justice Mohammed Umar, who was reported to be sitting at the Enugu division of the court.
The case, which was listed as number 11 on Wednesday’s cause list, was therefore rescheduled for November 5 for the hearing of the motion on notice.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Justice Umar had earlier fixed October 20 for the respondents in the police’s ex parte motion to show cause why the interim order issued by the court against the protesters should be lifted.
However, the hearing could not proceed on October 20 because the protest took place that same day, disrupting activities at the Federal High Court in Abuja.
The judge had granted an interim order sought by the police, prohibiting Sowore and others from holding demonstrations demanding the release of Nnamdi Kanu in certain sensitive areas within Abuja.
Justice Umar restricted the protesters from marching near Aso Rock Villa, the National Assembly, the Force Headquarters, the Court of Appeal, Eagle Square, and Shehu Shagari Way until the motion on notice is heard.
The judge also issued an order for the “abridgement of time within which the respondents will respond to the application on notice to cause the ex parte order to be set aside on Monday, the 20th of October, 2025 at 9.00am,” before adjourning the matter to October 20 for the hearing of the motion on notice.
This order followed the ex parte application moved by police counsel Wisdom Madaki on behalf of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (FRN) on October 17.
In the ex parte motion marked FHC/ABJ/CS/2202/2025, the Police Force sued Sowore, Sahara Reporters Ltd, and Sahara Reporters’ Media Foundation as the 1st to 3rd respondents.
The force also included the Take It Back Movement (TIB), the Transformation of Nigeria or Any Form of Organisation or Any Other Person(s) Acting Either Express or Implied Instruction or Any Other Organisation or Group With the Like Intention, and Unknown Persons as the 4th and 5th respondents respectively.
In an affidavit supporting the ex parte motion, sworn by Bassey Ibithan, a police officer attached to the Directorate of Legal Services at the Force Headquarters in Abuja, the officer stated that if the application was not granted, the protest might pose a threat to national security.
Sowore, the publisher of Sahara Reporters, had planned to lead the protest to demand the release of Nnamdi Kanu, the detained leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).
Sowore, who also contested as the presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC) in the 2019 and 2023 elections, had mobilised for what he described as a planned peaceful protest against Kanu’s detention on October 20.
