The Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi, made a surprise appearance for the prosecution on Tuesday in the trial of Sahara Reporters publisher and presidential candidate Omoyele Sowore at the Federal High Court in Abuja.
His appearance ended up as an effort to rally against Mr Sowore’s request to subpoena the Director-General of the State Security Service (SSS), Oluwatisin Ajayi, for cross-examination by his team of lawyers.
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The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the SSS brought charges against Mr Sowore over his social media posts from last year calling Mr Tinubu a criminal.
Mr Sowore, the presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC) for the forthcoming 2027 general elections, faces criminal defamation, cyberstalking and incitement charges stemming from the posts before Judge Mohammed Umar.
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The trial recorded Mr Fagbemi’s appearance for the first time on Tuesday.
Mr Fagbemi led a team of lawyers, including the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Rotimi Oyedepo, and the lead prosecution on record, Akinlolu Kehinde, among others, in the trial.
He urged the court to reject Mr Sowore’s request to subpoena Mr Ajayi, the SSS chief, to testify in his defence.
The AGF said the SSS had been so responsive enough to allow the second defence witness, an official from the service, to give testimony on the last adjourned date, said the application for Ajayi to testify was to delay the proceedings.
Mr Sowore first informed the judge on 22 July of his plan to have Mr Ajayi and presidential spokesperson, Bayo Onanuga, summoned separately as defence witnesses.
PREMIUM TIMES reported that Mr Sowore’s lead defence lawyer, Adeyinka Olumide-Fusika, said this after a subpoenaed SSS official, Uwem Davies, could not answer some questions from the defence team during the 22 July hearing.
Mr Davies, who appeared as a subpoenaed witness, described himself as the Principal Officer, General Services at the SSS.
He said the court subpoenaed him to testify in the case at Mr Sowore’s request.
He confirmed writing a letter, on the directive of the Director General of the SSS, requesting the defendant to take down his post on his X and Facebook platforms because it was generating tension in the society.
The witness said the letter, dated 22 January was the only letter he wrote asking the defendant to retract what he had posted on his social media handle regarding President Bola Tinubu.
When shown a letter 7 dated September 2025 addressed to the MD, CEO of Meta, Facebook’s parent company, the witness said the letter contained his name, but was not authored by him.
He said one B. Bamigboye, who was also subpoenaed, was his colleague in the same department, but had since retired.
The witness said he did not interface with Sowore before writing the defendant, but acted on the directive of the DG of the SSS, Mr Ajayi.
Fielding further questions during cross-examination on his and Mr Ajayi’s relationship with Mr Tinubu, in view of their claim that Mr Sowore’s post infuriated a number of the president’s supporters, the witness said he could not tell if they were supporters of President Tinubu.
He insisted that as a lawyer employed by the SSS, he was instructed by the DG of the SSS to write Mr Sowore to retract his alleged false post about the president.
On whether he interacted with the supporters of the president before writing the letter, Mr Davies said he did not, but wrote the letter as directed by his employer.
At this point, Mr Olumide-Fusika told the court he would have no option but to subpoena the DG of the SSS because Mr Davies had been unable to answer his questions as desired.
Mr Davies said that all he did in respect of the case was in his official capacity, not personal capacity.
He said the subpoena, which he tendered earlier, was served on the SSS and that the subpoena was passed on to him in his official capacity.
The witness confirmed that he and B. Bamigbose worked in the same department, but that Mr Bamigboye had retired from service and his present location was unknown to his employer.
He said Bamigboye authored the letter to Chairman/CEO X Corp on behalf of the DG of SSS in respect of this case.
He added that Bamigboye authored the letter in his official capacity.
Mr Davies said he had a copy of the letter with him.
Mr Kehinde then applied to tender both documents in evidence, but Mr Olumide-Fusika objected and the judge upheld the objection.
Although Mr Olumide-Fusika told the court that he had 20 witnesses to call, he applied for adjournment to enable him prepare his application for the issuance of a subpoena on the DG of SSS.
Mr Olumide-Fusika said he had also applied that a subpoena be issued on the spokesman for President Tinubu, Bayo Onanuga.
The lawyer, however, said that the court’s bailiff told him that he had been unable to serve Mr Onanuga with the subpoena.
(NAN)
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