Human rights activist and publisher of SaharaReporters, Omoyele Sowore, has sued the State Security Services (SSS) and X’s parent company over his post on the social media platform call President Bola Tinubu a criminal.
Mr Sowore announced the lawsuit on Tuesday through his verified Facebook page, although, court filings seen by PREMIUM TIMES show that his lawyer, Tope Temokun, instituted the action on 9 September.
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But Mr Sowore made the announcement on Tuesday, a few hours after the Nigerian government filed cybercrimes charges against him, Facebook and X earlier over the contensious social media post against Mr Tinubu.
The SSS had earlier written separate letters to the parent companies of the social media platforms, asking them to delete the posts and activate Mr Sowore’s accounts or face consequences.
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The Nigerian secret police also wrote to Mr Sowore, similarly asking him to delete the posts.
While Mr Sowore publicly rebuffed the request to delete the post, Facebook and X have yet to make a public comment on the request or act on the Nigerian government’s request yet.
Sowore’s prayers
In his suit, Mr Sowore seeks several declarations and orders, including stopping the social media platfoms from deleting his posts.
He asks the court to declare that the SSS’s request for the removal of his 26 August post — in which he described President Bola Tinubu as a “criminal” — violates his right to freedom of expression under Section 39 of the 1999 Constitution and Article 9 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights.
He also contends that branding his post “illegal” without hearing him breached his right to fair hearing under Section 36(1).
He also urges to the court to declare call by the SSS on the social media platforms to deactivate his account infringed on his freedom of association under Section 40.
Mr Sowore further prays for injunctions restraining the SSS and its director-general from transmitting censorship requests to Meta or interfering with his Facebook account.
He seeks an order compelling the withdrawal of all prior censorship communications and restraining Meta from acting on such requests.
In a statement on Tuesday, his lawyer, Mr Temokun, described SSS’ letters to Facebook and X as an attempt at censorship, which he described as “an assault on free speech”.
Mr Temokun warned that if state agencies dictate to global platforms “who may speak and what may be said, then no Nigerian is safe.”
Nigerian govt responds with criminal charges
Barely days after Mr Sowore’s suit was filed, the federal government through the Director of Public Prosecutions at the Federal Ministry of Justice, Mohammed Abubakar, lodged five counts of cybercrimes and defamation of Mr Tinubu against Mr Sowore on Tuesday. The government filed the charges before the Federal High Court in Abuja.
According to court documents obtained by this newspaper, the charges stemmed from Mr Sowore’s August 25 and 26 posts on Facebook and X, in which he accused President Tinubu of lying about fighting corruption during a state visit to Brazil and described him as a “criminal”.
The prosecution alleged that Mr Sowore knowingly spread false information capable of causing public disorder, contrary to Section 24(1)(b) of the Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention, etc.) Amendment Act, 2024.
Two of the counts are cybercrime-related, while three accuse him of defamation and publishing false statements likely to incite fear and disturb public peace under the Criminal Code Act.
Although Facebook and X were listed as co-defendants, none of the charges directly accuses the platforms of committing offences.
The charges have not yet been assigned to a judge, and no date has been fixed for Mr Sowore’s arraignment.
SSS pressures on social media platforms
The criminal case followed SSS correspondences to Facebook and X demanding deletion of Mr Sowore’s posts and deactivation of his accounts, threatening consequences for non-compliance.
The agency also issued direct warnings to Mr Sowore.
But Mr Sowore rejected the directive in letters to both platforms, accusing the SSS of harassment and insisting he would not retract his statements, which he described as part of his constitutional duty to hold leaders accountable.
Mr Sowore was earlier arrested by the SSS in 2019 after launching the #RevolutionNow protests.
He was later charged with treasonable felony and other offences. Despite multiple court orders granting him bail, the SSS kept him in detention for months and re-arrested him inside a courtroom in December 2019, an incident that drew global outrage.
Since then, the activist has faced surveillance, travel restrictions, and repeated legal battles tied to his criticism of political leaders.
Human rights groups including Amnesty International and the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) have described his treatment as part of efforts to silence dissent.
This is not the first time the Nigerian government would move against a social media platform.
On 5 June 2021, the Nigerian government banned X, then known as Twitter, after the platform took down a post by then President Muhammadu Buhari considered to be a threat to the people of South-east. The ban was not lifted until 13 January 2022.
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