HAWORTH — There were 87 yellow ribbons, one to mark each day that Omoyele Sowore has been in a Nigerian prison.

The ribbons were held by people gathered in front of Borough Hall on Monday evening to call for the Haworth resident's release and return to the U.S. after his arrest in early August.

Sowore is the founder of Sahara Reporters, a pro-democracy, anti-corruption online news service that has been critical of the Nigerian government.

He was arrested while organizing a peaceful pro-democracy protest in Nigeria. He was charged in a Nigerian court with organizing a protest, insulting Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari and transferring U.S. money to a Nigerian account. He pleaded not guilty to all the charges.

Requirements of his bail, set at $829,000, prevent Sowore from talking to the press, being involved with a protest and leaving Abuja, the Nigerian capital where he is being held.

Sowore's wife, Opeyemi, said Monday that she has not spoken to her husband since August. Standing with her children and other family members, she thanked the 100-plus neighbors in attendance.

"I'm truly honored and overwhelmed by the love, the kindness, the community that I have found here in Haworth," Sowore said. "Thank you everybody for your support, your prayers, your thoughts while my family and I have been going through this tough period."

Sowore launched Sahara Reporters from his Englewood home in 2006. He moved its headquarters to Manhattan two years later with support from the Ford Foundation and the Global Information Network.

"He wanted citizens to be able to report what they saw," Opeyemi Sowore said in September. "He would say, 'I am a citizen journalist.'"

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Although trees lining Haworth Avenue already had yellow ribbons tied to them, people gathered at Monday's event tied 87 yellow ribbons to one special tree. Councilwoman Heather Wasser, one of the organizers, said the yellow ribbons symbolize missing loved ones.

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She said the goal of the event was to spread awareness of Sowore's situation, with the hope that the U.S. government and the United Nations will work to get him back to Haworth.

"We really want to get him out of Nigeria safely and back to his family," Wasser said.

Dozens of human rights organizations have filed an urgent appeal with the United Nations on Sowore’s behalf. A spokesperson for the U.N.’s Human Rights Council declined to comment on the appeal last month.

According to press freedom advocacy group Reporters Without Borders, Nigerian journalists “are often threatened, subjected to physical violence or denied access to information by government officials, police and sometimes the public itself.”

The organization ranks Nigeria 120th of 180 countries on its World Press Freedom Tracker.

Ricardo Kaulessar is a local reporter for NorthJersey.com. For unlimited access to the most important news from your local community, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.

Email: kaulessar@northjersey.com Twitter: @ricardokaul