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By Oscar Okhifo
Human rights activist and SaharaReporters publisher, Omoyele Sowore, has filed a lawsuit against the Department of State Services (DSS), Meta Platforms (owners of Facebook), and X Corp (formerly Twitter) at the Federal High Court in Abuja, over what he described as unconstitutional censorship of his social media accounts.
In the suit, filed by his lawyer, Tope Temokun, Sowore is asking the court to restrain the DSS from directing global tech companies to delete his posts, including one in which he called President Bola Tinubu a “criminal.”
“These suits were filed to challenge the unconstitutional censorship initiated by the DSS/SSS against Sowore’s accounts maintained with Meta and X,” Temokun said in a statement on Tuesday.
He stressed that the case was not just about his client, but about free expression in Nigeria.
“If state agencies can dictate to global platforms who may speak and what may be said, then no Nigerian is safe. Voices will be silenced at the whim of those in power.”
The suit invokes Section 39 of the 1999 Constitution, which guarantees freedom of expression, and argues that no security agency has the power to suspend or delete those rights. It also warns Meta and X against becoming complicit in political repression by bowing to “unlawful censorship demands.”
Sowore’s legal team is seeking declarations that the DSS has no authority to censor Nigerians online and that Meta and X must protect users against unlawful interference.
“This struggle is not about personalities,” the statement added. “It is about principle. And we shall resist every attempt to turn Nigeria into a digital dictatorship.”
The fresh suit comes shortly after the DSS filed a five-count charge against Sowore at the same court, accusing him of defaming President Tinubu in posts on August 25 and 26, 2025.
The charges, signed by the Director of Public Prosecutions at the Ministry of Justice, allege that Sowore’s comments were false, defamatory, and intended to incite unrest, citing the Cybercrimes Amendment Act, 2024.
Exhibits filed include Sowore’s posts on X and Facebook, as well as letters the DSS wrote to both platforms demanding deletion and account deactivation. No judge has yet been assigned to the case, and no date has been fixed for Sowore’s arraignment.
Sowore, a former Presidential candidate and longstanding critic of successive Nigerian governments, has vowed not to retract his statements, insisting that his criticism of President Tinubu is part of his constitutional duty to hold leaders accountable.