Nigerian authorities have arrested five activists who were organizing an anti-government protest, severely beating the most prominent Omoyele Sowore, The Bangkok Post reports.
Sowore's lawyer Femi Falana demanded his client's immediate release following the arrests in the capital Abuja overnight December 31, adding that he had been placed in a dangerous section of a notorious prison.
The police officers who arrested Sowore, who is also a journalist, "subjected him to severe beating and left him with bruises all over his body," Falana told AFP.
Several hours before his arrest, the opposition leader issued a tweet calling on Nigerians to march in the street to denounce governance in Nigeria.
