The Department of State Services (DSS) has filed charges against the presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC), Omoyele Sowore for social media posts critical of President Bola Tinubu.
A five-count charge was filed at the Federal High Court in Abuja on behalf of the agency and the Nigerian government by Muhammed Abubakar, a Director of Public Prosecutions at the Federal Ministry of Justice, as well as other lawyers for the DSS. including M.E. Ernest, U.B. Bulla, Dr. C.S. Eze, and E.G. Orubor.
The suit listed social media platforms X Corp and Meta Incorporated as defendants, for failing to accommodate the DSS' demand to delete Sowore’s accounts.
On September 8, the DSS handed Sowore a one-week ultimatum to delete a social media post about President Bola Tinubu which it termed as "false, malicious, and inciting."
The ultimatum expired on Monday with the post still up.
Confirming the news of the suit against him in a post on X, Sowore declared that he would be "present whenever this case is assigned for trial."
“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,” he wrote.
“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," he added.
