Sahara Reporters publisher and African Action Congress (AAC) 2023 presidential candidate, Omoyele Sowore, has defied a directive from the Department of State Services (DSS) to delete a social media post in which he criticized President Bola Tinubu.
Sowore disclosed on Sunday via X that the DSS had pressured the platform to remove his August 26 post, but he vowed not to comply.
“This morning, X (formerly Twitter) officially contacted me about the despicable threat letter they received from the lawless @OfficialDSSNG over my Tweet BELOW on Tinubu. One option I will NOT be taking is deleting that Tweet. Thank you, @X,” Sowore wrote.
The controversial post described Tinubu as a “criminal” after the president claimed during his visit to Brazil that there was no longer corruption in Nigeria.
“This criminal @officialABAT actually went to Brazil to state that there is NO MORE corruption under his regime in Nigeria. What audacity to lie shamelessly!” the post read.
In its letter to X, the DSS alleged that Sowore’s remarks breached Nigerian laws, citing the Cyber Crimes Act and the Terrorism Prevention and Prohibition Act, and warned that the content posed a threat to national security with potential to incite protests.
X confirmed receiving the complaint but explained that it had “not taken any action on the reported content at this time.” The platform noted that, under its transparency policy, it informs users whenever governments or law enforcement seek to restrict their posts.
Media reports had earlier claimed that the DSS gave X 24 hours to delete the tweet.
Sowore, a long-time critic of successive Nigerian governments, has repeatedly clashed with security agencies over his activism.
