There was a homecoming in New Jersey on Saturday for a journalist who was detained in Nigeria for nearly five years.
It’s a story we’ve covered since he was first arrested.
“I can’t even describe [how it feels to be home] because I never thought I would make it back here. Sometimes I never thought I’d make it back here alive,” Yele Sowore said. “I ran for president of Nigeria in 2019 in the general election, and when elections were badly mismanaged, I went back and organized a protest tagged ‘The Revolution Now,’ and I was arrested before the protests could take place.”
Sowore, a Nigerian-American journalist, was arrested on charges of treason in 2019 and set free on bond only to be kidnapped in that same courtroom.
Saturday, he was reunited with his wife and two children in the Bergen County borough of Haworth in front of a standing-room-only crowd.
“Why is the Nigerian government so afraid of you?” CBS New York’s Derick Waller asked.
“I think my biggest offense is establishing a media company that exposes corruption because corruption is Nigeria’s biggest problem,” Sowore said.
The founder of SaharaReporters.com was brought home with help from Congressman Josh Gottheimer.
“And I said I can’t wait for you to get home so you can have a slice of pizza, because that’s what I know I would miss most if I were away, so we got you a pie,” Gottheimer said.
His office put pressure on Nigerian officials and the United States State Department, helping with Sowore’s green card.
“After you travel for a year without coming here, you lose it, so it would not have been easy had he not been involved,” Sowore said.
His wife, Opeyami, was also instrumental, appearing on CBS New York multiple times over the years and organizing a yellow ribbon campaign — one for each day her husband was wrongfully detained.
“Yele, we love you. We’re so happy that you’re home safely. We’re going to do a bonfire tonight and take your passport,” Opeyemi Sowore said, laughing.
“Are you going to burn that passport?” Waller asked Yele Sowore.
“Well, my wife might burn the passport, but you can’t burn the will to make Nigeria become a democratic success and prosperous society,” he said.
“Will you ever go back?” Waller asked.
“I will. There’s no going back on making Nigeria a better country,” Yele Sowore said.
Sadly, the number of journalists around the world being wrongfully detained is on the rise with authoritarian regimes in places like Russia, Iran, China and Turkey cracking down on something many Americans take for granted — freedom of an independent press.
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