Today (16th of February, 2017) is the birthday of activist, Omoyole Sowore, founder of popular online platform Sahara Reporters and the event was accidentally marked with supporters in front of a police station in Yaba, Lagos.
Omoyele Sowore
Ondo native, Omoyele Sowore of Sahara Reporters based in New York, United States of America is 46 years old today, according to a trusted friend Aolat Oluwatomisin Sule.
The birthday of the fiery activist and journalist coincided with his appointment with Nigeria Police Force State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID) in Yaba, Lagos earlier today which was later cancelled for clashing with the burial of an unnamed senior police officer.
This promted the former University of Lagos Student Union Governmnent President to mark the special day with his numerous followers in front of the police station with a cake presented before him.
There are reports that Sowore could be charged to court for 'Affray' after a public altercation with an old friend, Lekan Fatodu, publisher of UK-based CheckOut magazine who had since allegedly pitched his tent with the People's Democratic Party and was alleged to have benefitted from the arms deal slush funds.
Sowore has been widely celebrated online by his supporters with different complimentary messages dropped on his wall in celebration of his heroic deeds in the last four decades on earth.
Read what an international journalist, Simon Ateba has to say about Mr. Sowore who has ran SaharaReporters excellently for 10 years:
"For those who dont know him, let me do the introduction. Radical Nigerian journalist and online publisher of New York-based newspaper, saharareporters.com, Omoyele Sowore has brought down the mighty in this Africa's most populous nation, so often that he was labelled the Wikileaks of Nigeria.
He once released a bomb from New York about gargantuan corruption in the aviation industry, bringing down Stella Oduah, the then untouchable friend of President Goodluck Jonathan. As he exposed corruption in government, the then opposition party, the All Progressives Party, APC, praised him. But that was until they also got to power. Not long after, he began releasing missiles from New York. The Chief of Army Staff, was corrupt, he told us. The Chief of Staff was corrupt.
The President wife's was abusing her office, and many other cases. As those revelations spread like wildfire, the old friends began to distance themselves from him. Suddenly, Sowore was wanted by the police in Lagos for an old story he had written. The story, the police said, was not connected to any government official, but it was just connected to a "private citizen".
Ever since, he has been invited several times as President Muhammadu Buhari battles with his health in the United Kingdom and there is a possibility of power struggle in Nigeria.
Today is his birthday, but he was invited again by the police. The invitation was finally cancelled after protests erupted at the police division. For all those struggling to make Nigeria a better place, we wish a freedom fighter who does not refer to himself as a journalist a happy birthday."