The Department of State Services(DSS) on Tuesday requested that the Federal Government bring criminal charges against human right activist and former presidential candidate, Sowore for calling President Bola Tinubu a “criminal” in a social media post.
In a shocking response to the DSS charges, Sowore has also filed a lawsuit against the DSS in the Federal High Court in Abuja, arguing that the restriction of his social media accounts was unlawful.
In its charges marked FHC/ABJ/CR/481/2025, the Federal Government alleged that Sowore, using his verified X handle, @YeleSowore, wrote: “This criminal @officialABAT actually went to Brazil to state that there is no more corruption under his regime in Nigeria. What audacity to lie shamelessly!”
X (previously Twitter) and Meta (owners of Facebook) were also named by the Federal Government as co-defendants in the five charges that were submitted to the Federal High Court in Abuja on Tuesday by M. B. Abubakar, the Director of Public Prosecutions at the Federal Ministry of Justice.
The Federal Government claimed that Sowore’s August 25 post violated Section 24(2)(b) of the 2024 Amendment Act to the Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention, etc.) Act.
The case dealt with Sowore’s remarks made when Tinubu visited Brazil and asserted that corruption had been eradicated by his government.
In a following letter, the DSS demanded that Sowore remove the “false, malicious, and inciting” messages, threatening legal action “to protect national security and public order” if he did not comply.
Additionally, the agency petitioned X Corp. and Meta to deactivate Sowore’s accounts and remove the posts. But Sowore refused, stating that he would not take back his remarks under any circumstances.
He insisted that he had a constitutional obligation to hold the administration responsible, which included criticising it.
Following this, the Federal Government said in the accusations that Sowore’s remarks amounted to violations punishable by Sections 59 and 375 of the Criminal Code Act, as well as Section 24(1)(b) of the Act
According to the agency, the post was meant to cause public unrest, exacerbate tensions between Nigerians who hold different political opinions, and harm the president’s reputation.
However, Sowore filed a countersuit through his attorney, Tope Temokun, hours after the Federal Government filed the accusations on Tuesday. He asked the court to stop the DSS from ordering social media companies to remove his tweets, including ones in which he referred to Tinubu as a “criminal.”
“These suits were filed to challenge the unconstitutional censorship initiated by the DSS/SSS against Sowore’s accounts maintained with Meta and X,” Temokun said in a statement on Tuesday.
“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 whim of those in power.”
“No security agency, no matter how powerful, can suspend or delete those rights,” he said. “Meta and X must also understand this: when they bow to unlawful censorship demands, they become complicit in the suppression of liberty. They cannot hide behind neutrality while authoritarianism is exported onto their platforms.”
“We call on all lovers of freedom, journalists, human rights defenders, and the Nigerian people to stand firm. Today it is Sowore; tomorrow it may be you,” the statement said. “This struggle is not about personalities. It is about principle. And we shall resist every attempt to turn Nigeria into a digital dictatorship”, he added.
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