By Atoyebi Nike
The Department of State Services (DSS) has filed a five-count charge against former presidential candidate and activist Omoyele Sowore, alongside social media companies X Corp and Meta, over posts critical of President Bola Tinubu.
The case, dated September 16, 2025, was lodged at the Federal High Court in Abuja by M.B. Abubakar, Director of Public Prosecutions at the Federal Ministry of Justice, in collaboration with DSS counsel M.E. Ernest, U.B. Bulla, Dr. C.S. Eze, and E.G. Orubor.
Sowore confirmed the charges in a Facebook post on Tuesday, accusing the DSS of “inventing novel offences” to silence him.
“The State Security Service today filed a 5-count charge at the Federal High Court in Abuja against X, Facebook, and myself. They claimed that because I called Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu a criminal, I have somehow committed offences spread across five counts. Regardless, I will be present whenever this case is assigned for trial,” he wrote, tagging the post with #RevolutionNow.
The charges follow Sowore’s refusal to delete a tweet labelling the President a criminal, despite a DSS request to X Corp demanding its removal. Sowore restated his stance, saying: “One option I will NOT be taking is deleting that Tweet.”
He also published a message from X confirming it had received a legal request from the DSS but had not acted on it. “We understand that receiving this type of notice can be unsettling… While X is not able to provide legal advice, we want you to have an opportunity to evaluate the request,” the platform said.
X stressed its commitment to user transparency and noted that such government requests are detailed in its global Transparency Report.
