The Department of State Services (DSS) on Tuesday slammed a five-count charge on the Presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC) and the Publisher of Sahara Reporter, Omoyele Sowore, following the anti-Tinubu comment.
The suit, filed on September 16, 2025, at the Federal High Court in Abuja, stemmed from Sowore’s alleged refusal to take down posts on X about the President.
It was initiated on behalf of the DSS and the Federal Government by M.B. Abubakar, Director of Public Prosecutions at the Federal Ministry of Justice, alongside four DSS counsel — M.E. Ernest, U.B. Bulla, Dr. C.S. Eze, and E.G. Orubor
Reacting to the charge, Sowore wrote on Facebook, “The State Security Service, alias @OfficialDSSNG, today filed a 5-count charge at the Federal High Court in Abuja against ‘X’ (formerly Twitter, Facebook, and myself.
“They claimed that because I called Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu a criminal, I have somehow committed a set of ‘novel’ offences they invented and spread across five counts.
“It’s hard to believe there’s anyone sensible left in these offices that should be making Nigeria work. Regardless, I will be present whenever this case is assigned for trial. #RevolutionNow.”
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Sowore reiterated his stance, stating that he would not delete the tweet regardless of the threat.
“This morning, X (formerly Twitter) officially contacted me about the despicable threat letter they received from the lawless DSS over my Tweet on Tinubu. One option I will NOT be taking is deleting that Tweet. Thank you, @X.”
The activist also published the message sent to him by X, which confirmed that the platform had received a legal request from the DSS concerning his post.
The message from X read, “Hello @YeleSowore. In the interest of transparency, we are writing to inform you that X has received a request from the Department of State Services regarding your X account, @YeleSowore, that claims the following content violates the law(s) of Nigeria. @YeleSowore, we have not taken any action on the reported content at this time as a result of this request.
“As X strongly believes in defending and respecting the voice of our users, it is our policy to notify our users if we receive a legal request from an authorised entity (such as law enforcement or a government agency) to remove content from their account.
“We provide notice whether or not the user lives in the country where the request originated. This page provides more information
“This may include seeking legal counsel and challenging the request in court, contacting relevant civil society organisations, voluntarily deleting the content (if applicable), or finding some other resolution.
“For more information on legal requests X receives from governments worldwide, please refer to this article on our Help Centre and our biannual Transparency Report.”
