M.B. Abubakar, Director of Public Prosecutions at the Federal Ministry of Justice, and four other DSS counsel, M.E. Ernest, U.B. Bulla, Dr. C.S. Eze, and E.G. Orubor, filed a five-count charge against former presidential candidate Omoyele Sowore and social media platforms X and Meta, over posts critical of President Bola Tinubu.
The suit was filed at the Federal High Court in Abuja on September 16, 2025, on behalf of the DSS and the Federal Government.
Sowore confirmed the development in a Facebook post on Tuesday, writing, “It’s hard to believe there is anyone sensible left in these offices that should be making Nigeria work. In any case, I will be present whenever this case is assigned for trial. #RevolutionNow.” The State Security Service, alias @OfficialDSSNG, filed a 5-count charge against “X” (formerly Twitter Facebook) and myself at the Federal High Court in Abuja today, claiming that I called Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu a criminal, allegedly committing a set of “novel” offenses that they invented and spread across five counts.
After the DSS asked X to remove the contentious tweet, it was previously reported that the human rights activist and 2023 African Action Congress candidate refused to do so.
“This morning, X (formerly Twitter) officially contacted me about the despicable threat letter they received from the lawless DSS over my Tweet on Tinubu,” Sowore stated, restating his position. I’m not going to delete that tweet, for example. Many thanks, @X.
Additionally, he made public the message that X had sent him, confirming that the platform had been notified by the DSS of a legal request regarding his post.
“Hello @YeleSowore,” said the message from X. For the sake of openness, we are writing to let you know that X has been notified by the Department of State Services that the following content on your X account, @YeleSowore, is illegal in Nigeria. @YeleSowore, in response to your request, we have not yet taken any action on the reported content.
It is our policy to inform users in the event that we receive a legal request to remove content from their accounts from an authorized authority (such law enforcement or a government agency), as X firmly believes in protecting and honoring the voice of our users. Regardless of whether the user resides in the nation where the request was made, we give notice. More details are available on this page.
“We are aware that getting this kind of notification can be unnerving. Although X is unable to offer legal advice, we want you to have a chance to consider the request and, if you so want, take the necessary steps to safeguard your interests.
This could entail getting legal advice and contesting the request in court, getting in touch with pertinent civil society organizations, willingly removing the content (if applicable), or coming up with another alternative.
“Please see this article on our Help Center and our biannual Transparency Report for additional details on the legal requests that X receives from governments around the world.”
