Federal Government has filed a five-count charge against publisher of Sahara Reporters and 2023 presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC) Omoyele Sowore, alongside X Corp and Meta Platforms Inc., owners of X and Facebook, over recent posts in which Mr Sowore described President Bola Tinubu as a criminal.
The charges were filed on Tuesday at the Federal High Court, Abuja, by the Department of State Services (DSS) through the director of public prosecutions at the Federal Ministry of Justice, Muhammed Abubakar and other lawyers for the DSS.
This followed the DSS ultimatum of September 8, giving Sowore one week to delete the posts on his X and Facebook pages or face prosecution.
The DSS also demanded that the social media companies take down his accounts.
The ultimatum expired on Monday, September 15 without compliance.
Sowore shared copies of the charges on his X account.
“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.
“It’s hard to believe there’s anyone sensible left in these offices that should be making Nigeria work. Regardless”, he wrote.
He confirmed that he would appear whenever the case is assigned for trial.
“I will be present whenever this case is assigned for trial. #RevolutionNow,” he concluded.
The five counts accuse Sowore of publishing false and defamatory statements against President Tinubu on X and Facebook in August, with intent to cause public disturbance.
They allege breaches of the Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention, etc) Amendment Act, 2024 and the Criminal Code Act.
Both X Corp and Meta Inc. are listed as co-defendants in the case.
