Dare Babalola
The Department of State Services (DSS) has petitioned X Corp., the company behind the social media platform X (formerly Twitter), to deactivate the account of Omoyele Sowore, a Nigerian activist and former presidential candidate.
The DSS accused Sowore of posting a disparaging and ridiculous tweet about President Bola Tinubu, which they claim could create political tension and threaten national security.
The petition addressed to the Chairman and CEO X Corp., Elon Musk and dated September 6, 2025, the agency also accused Sowore of spreading misleading information and willful intention to furthering an ideology capable of serious harm, incitement to violence, cyber crime, hate speech to discredit Tinubu, therefore calling on the social media company to ban or deactivate the verified X handle of the former presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC).
In the letter signed by B. Bamigboye for the director-general of the service, the DSS noted that Sowore, publisher of Sahara Reporters, had on August 25 described Tinubu as a “criminal” while reacting to the president’s comments on corruption during a recent trip to Brazil.
The agency said the tweet ridiculed the president before the international community.
The statement read, “We detected and monitored with dismay and consternation a widely condemned publication/trending Tweet by Omoyele Sowore on his X official handle page @YeleSowore on 25th August, 2025 about 11:38 PM local time (2338 hours) WAT disparaging and ridiculing the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
The Tweet read: “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!”
“Those words were personally directed at Mr. President through his official communication channel @officialABAT which is the known X handle of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. The said tweet is herewith attached and will be referenced on herein for emphasis and necessary action.
“The said tweet is still in circulation and has attracted widespread condemnation by majority of Nigerians, some of whom may resort to unwholesome activities to vent their grievance over it, especially supporters of the President who have started taking to the streets in protest, thereby creating political tension and threatening the country’s national security. This is in addition to the disparaging effect the tweet has on the reputation of Mr. President and the country before the comity of nations.
“The tweet under reference is against the transparency on X and Government has frowned at it and found it extremely dangerous, false, privacy violation behavior that manipulate and negatively impacts on the person of the President and the Country.
“It is pertinent to bring to your knowledge that under the Nigerian Law, these quoted tweets/words constitute offence punishable in Section 51 of the Criminal Code Act Cap.77 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, which prohibits publication of false information; Sections 19,22 and 24 of the Cyber Crimes Act 2025 which prohibits and makes it an offence to spread fake news or publishing content that is deliberately misleading or deceptive, posting content that is rude, vulgar, offensive, or indecent, especially with the intent to embarrass or humiliate others, provoke ethnic, religious, or tribal hatred through online or offline statements; amounting to domestic terrorism. The Law also makes the offender and the medium through which the offence is perpetrated/propagated culpable and criminally liable too. The author and purveyor of the inflammatory online publication against Mr. President is very much aware that the publication is also prohibited by Section 2(3) of the Terrorism (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022 and other relevant Laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
“It is not in doubt that the words employed by Mr. Omoyele Sowore is misleading information, online harassment and abuse, willful intention of furthering an ideology capable of serious harm, hate speech, cause disunity, discredit/disparage the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria within the Comity of Nations to damage the image of Nigeria and cause serious threat to national security of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”
