Sowore talks tough as DSS drags him, Meta, X to court over anti-Tinubu posts

The Department of State Services (DSS) has filed a five-count charge against former presidential candidate and activist, Omoyele Sowore, alongside social media giants X Corp and Meta Platforms Inc., over posts deemed critical of President Bola Tinubu.

The suit, dated September 16, 2025, was lodged at the Federal High Court in Abuja after Sowore allegedly refused to delete certain tweets about the President. The charges were filed on behalf of the DSS and the Federal Government by M.B. Abubakar, Director of Public Prosecutions at the Federal Ministry of Justice, supported by four other counsel to the DSS: M.E. Ernest, U.B. Bulla, Dr. C.S. Eze, and E.G. Orubor.

Confirming the development in a Facebook post, Sowore wrote: “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.”

The human rights activist and African Action Congress (AAC) candidate in the 2023 elections vowed not to delete the controversial tweet, despite DSS’s formal request to X demanding its removal.

Restating his stance, Sowore added: “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.”

He also shared the notification sent to him by X, which confirmed that the platform had received a legal request from the DSS concerning his post.

X’s message read in part: “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 account, @YeleSowore, that claims the following content violates the law(s) of Nigeria. We have not taken any action on the reported content at this time as a result of this request.”

The platform assured Sowore that it strongly believes in defending users’ voices, and advised him to seek legal counsel, challenge the request in court, or pursue other options available to him.

The case is expected to be assigned for trial in Abuja.