This post has already been read at least 11112 times!

Human rights activist and SaharaReporters publisher, Omoyele Sowore, has launched a fierce legal battle against the Department of State Services (DSS), Meta Platforms Inc., and X Corp., challenging what he calls unconstitutional censorship of his social media accounts after his posts describing President Bola Ahmed Tinubu as a “criminal” came under attack.

In a suit filed at the Federal High Court in Abuja by his lawyer, Tope Temokun, Sowore is asking the court to restrain the DSS from compelling global platforms to delete his posts, insisting that the case is not just about his personal rights but about the survival of free speech in Nigeria.

Temokun, in a statement on Tuesday, accused the security agency of attempting to silence political criticism through intimidation of social media companies, warning that if state agencies can dictate who speaks and what is said on global platforms, then no Nigerian is safe.

He argued that censorship of political opinions runs contrary to the spirit of democracy and cited Section 39 of the 1999 Constitution, which guarantees freedom of expression without interference. According to him, no security agency, no matter how powerful, has the authority to suspend or delete those rights. He also cautioned Meta and X against bowing to what he called unlawful censorship demands, stressing that when global platforms yield to government pressure, they become complicit in the suppression of liberty and cannot hide behind neutrality while authoritarianism is imported into their platforms.

Sowore’s lawsuit, which seeks full protection of his rights and those of other Nigerians from unlawful interference, frames the case as a defining moment in the defence of liberty.

“Today it is Sowore; tomorrow it may be you,” Temokun declared, adding that the struggle is about principle, not personality, and that Nigerians must resist every attempt to turn the country into a digital dictatorship.

The case comes just as the DSS filed fresh criminal charges against Sowore at the Federal High Court in Abuja, accusing him of defaming President Tinubu by repeatedly describing him as a criminal.

Court documents show that the charges, lodged on September 16, 2025, by M.B. Abubakar, Director of Public Prosecutions at the Federal Ministry of Justice, together with other government lawyers, have not yet been assigned to any judge, and no date has been fixed for arraignment.

The five-count charge alleges that Sowore used his official X handle and Facebook page on August 25 and 26 to call the President a criminal and accuse him of lying about ending corruption in Nigeria. The prosecution claims the posts were false and intended to cause a breakdown of law and order, in violation of Section 24(1)(b) of the Cybercrimes Amendment Act, 2024.

Two of the counts frame the remarks as defamatory, insisting that they damaged Tinubu’s reputation, while a further count accuses Sowore of deliberately publishing false information on both platforms with the alleged intent of inciting public fear and disturbing the peace.

Documents filed in court list as exhibits Sowore’s tweets and Facebook posts, letters the DSS wrote to Meta and X demanding deletions, and his subsequent responses to those directives. The prosecution has also indicated that additional evidence may be presented during the trial.

The charges arose after Sowore publicly dismissed President Tinubu’s recent remarks in Brazil, where the President claimed that his government had eliminated corruption. Sowore described the statement as false and declared that Tinubu himself was a criminal. Last Friday, the DSS formally wrote to Sowore demanding that he delete the posts, describing them as false, malicious, and inciting, and warning that failure to comply would trigger legal action to protect national security and public order.

Sowore refused. In a defiant public response, he declared that no amount of pressure would compel him to retract his remarks, insisting that his criticisms are part of his constitutional duty to hold leaders accountable.

The DSS, meanwhile, had also written to Meta and X, urging the platforms to delete Sowore’s posts and deactivate his verified accounts, an intervention that prompted Sowore to counter-sue, accusing the companies of complicity in repression.

Sowore, who has long been a thorn in the side of successive Nigerian governments, has faced multiple arrests, detentions, and prosecutions over his activism and the hard-hitting investigations of SaharaReporters. His new legal action sets the stage for a dramatic clash over free speech in Nigeria’s digital space. As he frames it, the matter is bigger than his personal struggle: it is a test of whether Nigerians can speak freely online without interference from the state. “If they silence me today, they can silence anyone tomorrow,” he warned.

StreetReporters.ng

This post has already been read at least 11112 times!