Two cases have been filed involving publisher of the SaharaReporters and former Presidential Candidate, Omoyele Sowore, over a tweet tagging Nigeria’s President Bola Ahmed Tinubu a criminal.
While the Department of State Services (DSS) filed a five-count charge against Sowore, and social media giants, X Corp and Meta Incorporation, the former students’ union leader himself has dragged the secret police and all the other parties to court.
According to the case filed by Sowore’s legal team against the DSS, the agency’s case violated the Constitution and amounted to a step towards curtailing free speech.
The agency had written to X, demanding that the account of Sowore be deactivated over some posts he made about the President, and issued Sowore an ultimatum to take down the posts it regarded as defamatory.
The suit initiated by the DSS was filed before a Federal High Court in Abuja after Sowore refused to take down some posts about President Bola Tinubu.
The charges were filed on behalf of the DSS and the Federal Government by M.B. Abubakar, Director of Public Prosecutions at the Federal Ministry of Justice, and four other counsel to the DSS – M.E. Ernest, U.B. Bulla, Dr. C.S. Eze, and E.G. Orubor.
Count one reads: “That you, Omoyele Sowore, adult, male on or about the 25th day of August, 2025, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, did use your official X Handle page, @Yele Sowore, to send out a message/ tweet as: ‘THIS CRIMINAL @ OFFICIAL PBAT ACTUALLY WENT TO BRAZIL TO STATE THAT THERE IS NO MORE CORRUPTION UNDER HIS REGIME IN NIGERIA. WHAT AUDACITY TO LIE SHAMELESSLY!’, which you know the said message to be false but posted it for the purpose of causing a breakdown of law and order in the country, especially among individuals who hold divergent views on the personality of the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Bola Ahmed Tinubu (GCFR) and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 24 (1) (b) of the Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention, etc) Amendment Act, 2024.”
Count two reads: “That you, Omoyele Sowore, adult male on or about the 26th day of August, 2025, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, did use your official Facebook page, Omoyele Sowore, to send out a message/ post as: ‘THIS CRIMINAL @ OFFICIAL PBAT ACTUALLY WENT TO BRAZIL TO STATE THAT THERE IS NO MORE CORRUPTION UNDER HIS REGIME IN NIGERIA. WHAT AUDACITY TO LIE SHAMELESSLY!”, which you know the said message/post to be false but posted it for the purpose of causing a breakdown of law and order in the country, especially among individuals who hold divergent views on the personality of the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Bola Ahmed Tinubu (GCFR) and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 24 (1) (b) of the Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention, etc) Amendment Act, 2024.”
In Count three, Sowore was accused of defaming President Tinubu in an August 25, 2025 post on his official X (Twitter) account, where he called the President a “criminal” and accused him of lying about ending corruption in Nigeria.
The fourth count is related to Sowore’s August 26, 2025, post on his official Facebook page, where he levelled the same allegation against the President.
In Count five, Sowore was accused of deliberately publishing false information on both X and Facebook on August 26, 2025, allegedly intended to cause public fear and disturbance, targeting the reputation of President Tinubu.
Announcing his own legal countermeasure on his Twitter X page, Omoyele Sowore @YeleSowore posted a statement from his legal team on Tuesday signed by signed Tope Temokun, Esq. on Tuesday September 16:
“SOWORE GOES TO COURT AGAINST SSS, META AND X: ASKS FEDERAL HIGH COURT TO STOP FACEBOOK AND TWITTER FROM DELETING HIS STATEMENT CALLING TINUBU A CRIMINAL
“On behalf of our client, Omoyele Sowore @YeleSowore, we have filed two fundamental rights actions at the Federal High Court, Abuja, against the State Security Service (SSS) @OfficialDSSNG @Meta (owners of @facebook), and @X Corp. (formerly Twitter).
“These lawsuits were filed to challenge the unconstitutional censorship initiated by the @OfficialDSSNG /SSS against Sowore’s accounts maintained with Meta and X.
“The lawsuit states categorically that this is about the survival of free speech in Nigeria. If state agencies can dictate to global platforms who may speak and what may be said, then no Nigerian is safe, their voices will be silenced at the whims of those in power.
“Censorship of political criticism is alien to democracy. The Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, in Section 39, guarantees every citizen the right to freedom of expression, without interference. No security agency, no matter how powerful, can suspend or delete those rights.
“Meta and X must also understand that when they bow to unlawful censorship demands, they become complicit in the suppression of the struggle for liberty. They cannot hide behind neutrality while authoritarianism is exported onto their platforms.
“Our prayers before the Court are simple:
That the SSS @OfficialDSSNG has no power in law to censor Nigerians on social media;
That Meta and X must not lend their platforms as tools of repression; and
That our client’s rights and by extension, the rights of all Nigerians, be fully protected against unlawful censorship.
We call on all lovers of freedom, journalists, human rights defenders, and the Nigerian people to stand firm.
Today it is @YeleSowore ; tomorrow it may be you.
This struggle is not about personalities. It is about principle. And we shall resist every attempt to turn Nigeria into a digital dictatorship.
