15 things you didn’t know about Sahara Reporters founder, Sowore, as he turns 45 today

  

  

         

1. As a 10 year old, he witnessed policemen attack and rape women in his community in Ilaje, Ondo State and vowed to become an activist.
2. He went to schools-Primary and High - in Ilaje Ese-Odo local government in Ondo State
3. He joined UNILAG in 1989 and lived in Henry Carr Hall. He also led series of protests against the government of Ibrahim Babangida.
4. He was Student Union President at UNILAG between 1992 and 1994
5. He was once expelled by UNILAG but later pardoned by the institution.
6. He launched a war against cultism
7. He was stabbed several times and stripped naked by cultists on March 11, 1994 while studying in his room
8. While recovering at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, policemen stormed LUTH to arrest him but nurses dressed him up as a corpse and wheeled him out of the hospital secretly.
9. He was declared wanted by the police for arson, robbery and malicious damage while a student and his pictures were published in newspapers.
10. He lived as a fugitive for several months and it was his girlfriend who usually helped him deliver hand-written statements to the press whenever he wanted to respond to allegations
11. He did his NYSC in Yola, Adamawa state in 1995. While there, he served as a presenter and producer on Adamawa State Television
12. In May 1996, while waiting to collect my his NYSC Discharge Certificate at the final marching out parade in Yola, he was arrested by the SSS and detained at the Air Force Guard room for one week for his controversial programmes but was released after a PUNCH newspaper publication.
13. His NYSC programme was extended by six months and he sued them at a Lagos High Court but the Abacha government frustrated the case. He continued to lead protests against Abacha until the former ruler died in 1998.
14. He relocated to the United States of America in 1999 for medical reasons due to injuries he suffered from the cult attacks and torture from security agents.
15. In an old interview he once described President Muhammadu Buhari and Olusegun Obasanjo and low-level thugs who do not deserve to walk free.