Human rights activist and former presidential candidate Omoyele Sowore has filed new suits at the Federal High Court in Abuja against the Department of State Services (DSS), Meta (Facebook’s parent company), and X Corp. (formerly Twitter), challenging alleged attempts to censor his social media posts critical of President Bola Tinubu.
The development was confirmed in a statement posted on Facebook by his lawyer, Tope Temokun, on Tuesday.
Temokun explained that the suits aim to confront “the unconstitutional censorship initiated by the DSS/SSS against Sowore’s accounts maintained with Meta and X,” emphasizing that the case centers on protecting free speech.
“If state agencies can dictate to global platforms who may speak and what may be said, then no Nigerian is safe; their voices will be silenced at the whim of those in power. Censorship of political criticism is alien to democracy. The Constitution, in Section 39, guarantees every citizen the right to freedom of expression, without interference. No security agency, no matter how powerful, can suspend or delete those rights,” the statement read in part.
Temokun also warned that Meta and X risk becoming complicit in repression if they comply with such demands.
“Meta and X must also understand this: When they bow to unlawful censorship demands, they become complicit in the suppression of liberty. They cannot hide behind neutrality while authoritarianism is exported onto their platforms,” he added.
The suit seeks, among other remedies, a declaration that the DSS has no legal authority to censor Nigerians on social media and that Meta and X must not serve as “tools of repression.”
Earlier, Sowore had described the DSS action as a breach of human rights, posting on Facebook:
“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. Regardless, I will be present whenever this case is assigned for trial. #RevolutionNow.”
PUNCH Online reported that Sowore had refused to delete the contentious tweet despite a request from the DSS to X, which sought its removal. He shared a notification from X confirming receipt of the legal request from the Nigerian secret police concerning his post. The message from X stated, in part: “We have not taken any action on the reported content at this time as a result of this request. As X strongly believes in defending and respecting the voice of our users, it is our policy to notify our users if we receive a legal request from an authorised entity.”
