The African Action Congress (AAC) presidential candidate in the 2023 elections, Omoyele Sowore, has said he was expelled twice from the University of Lagos (UNILAG) during his undergraduate days because of activism and advocacy for human rights.
Sowore disclosed this on Wednesday while speaking at THE PUNCH’s 50th anniversary and launching of “Our Punch Years” book held at NECA House Auditorium, Alausa, Ikeja, Lagos State.
The AAC chieftain also stated that he was denied his national service certificate issued by the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) to Nigerian graduates at the end of one year of mandatory service.
The human rights activist also recounted his experience at the university and why he was denied his NYSC certificate.
He said, “I was a student union activist at the University of Lagos, and were it not for Punch Newspaper and Vanguard, I probably wouldn’t have graduated from the university because we couldn’t even get judges to hear our cases when we were expelled.
“And I was expelled twice from the University of Lagos. I spent six years at the University of Lagos instead of the normal four years.
“When I went to serve in the Northern part of the country, particularly Adamawa State, I finished my NYSC and I was arrested with my NYSC uniform and detained by the military under (Sani) Abacha, that I was planning to overthrow the government.
“The reason was that in November 1996, I was working as a journalist at the ATV Yola, presenting the NYSC news. Being who I am, I reported that King Saro Wiwa was killed.
“It was a pre-recorded programme and my supervisor did not watch it before it was played. Suddenly, everywhere went gaga and they removed me from ATV Yola and I finished my NYSC and I was arrested and detained in a military guardroom at the Air Force base in Yola.”
Sowore said if not for a Punch reporter at the time, Stanley Yakubu, who reported that a corps member was being detained, he would have been forgotten inside the detention facility and would have died there.
He added: “Till today, I was never given my NYSC certificate. I don’t have my NYSC certificate as I speak, but I don’t need it anymore because I have served the country more than any corps member.”
