The Federal High Court in Lagos has said that the Nigeria Police Force did anything illegal when it said that human rights campaigner and Sahara Reporters publisher Omoyele Sowore was wanted in 2025.
Justice Musa Kakaaki said yesterday that the police’s actions were against the law and an abuse of power.
The court then ordered the Nigeria Police Force, Inspector-General of Police Kayode Egbetokun, and the Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Moshood Jimoh, to pay ₦30 million in damages.
Justice Kakaaki made it clear in a strongly worded decision that no Nigerian can be punished for speaking out, peacefully protesting, or holding government officials accountable.
The judge said that the Lagos State Commissioner of Police was “lawless” and blamed the Inspector-General of Police for the bad behavior that happened under his leadership.
Justice Kakaaki talked about how designating someone wanted in Nigeria has changed over time and said that the law now demands strong procedural safeguards.
He stressed that a person can only be proclaimed sought if there is a valid court-issued warrant, adequate notice, and compelling proof that the person is intentionally avoiding the law.
The court also said that Commissioner Jimoh’s warning to Sowore on October 27, 2025, telling him to stay away from Lagos State was arbitrary, unconstitutional, and not within the police’s legal authority.
The public notice that said Sowore was sought on November 3, 2025, was also called illegal, extra vires, unconstitutional, and a serious misuse of power.
On November 3, 2025, Lagos State Commissioner of Police Moshood Jimoh publicly declared Omoyele Sowore wanted. He accused Sowore of trying to organize a protest on the Third Mainland Bridge over the demolition of buildings in Oworonshoki.
The declaration came after the commissioner told the activist and former presidential candidate to keep away from Lagos State in a letter sent out in October 2021.
Sowore sued the commissioner, the Inspector-General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, and the Nigeria Police Force, saying that they had violated his basic rights.
Sowore urged the court to protect his rights to dignity, personal freedom, freedom of movement, expression, and peaceful assembly, which are all guaranteed by the Nigerian Constitution and the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights.
In an affidavit supporting the lawsuit, the activist said that he was wanted without the police first asking him to come in, issuing an arrest warrant, or making a formal complaint against him.
He said that the move not only violated his constitutional rights, but it also hurt his reputation as a journalist, activist, and previous presidential contender.
Sowore’s legal team, lead by Tope Temokun, said that he would have accepted any formal invitation from the authorities.
He urged the court to stop the police from bothering, threatening, or detaining him, and he also asked the court to throw out the public notice that said he was “wanted.”
He also wanted ₦500 million in general and exemplary damages for what he called the illegal and unjust violation of his basic rights.
The police fought the lawsuit, saying that the commissioner had the legal right to say that Sowore was wanted. They said that anyone who didn’t like the decision could go to court to get it changed.
Jimoh defended his actions on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily on November 5, 2025, saying that Sowore had broken an agreement to go to the police.
The commissioner remarked during the interview, “My statement that Sowore is wanted is still in effect.”
He said that as he was dealing with a riot, Sowore’s lawyer texted him and then he was sent to the Officer-in-Charge of the Legal Department. He said that the lawyer agreed that Sowore would go to the State Criminal Investigation Department in Yaba, where the case was being looked at.
“But he didn’t report all day yesterday,” Jimoh added. “We will do everything within the law to get him arrested, investigated, and prosecuted.”
The commissioner also said that Sowore’s claim that the Inspector-General of Police had ordered that he be “shot on sight” was “major misinformation.”
He said that the IGP would never give such an order.
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