Sahara Reporters publisher and 2023 presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC) Omoyele Sowore has filed two fundamental rights suits at the Federal High Court in Abuja against the Department of State Services (DSS), Meta (owners of Facebook) and X Corp, shortly after the Federal Government charged him alongside the two companies.
According to a statement by his lawyer Tope Temokun on Tuesday, the suits challenge alleged attempts to censor Mr Sowore’s accounts on the platforms.
Lawyer Temokun said the case is aimed at protecting freedom of speech in Nigeria, citing Section 39 of the Constitution which guarantees the right to expression.
The statement read in part, “That the DSS has no power in law to censor Nigerians on social media; That Meta and X must not lend their platforms as tools of repression; and That our client’s rights and by extension, the rights of all Nigerians, be fully protected against unlawful censorship.”
The legal team also argued that social media companies must not comply with unlawful censorship demands from state agencies, saying doing so would make them complicit in repression.
Sowore’s suits were filed hours after the DSS, through the Federal Ministry of Justice, filed a five-count charge against him, X Corp and Meta Platforms Inc. over posts in which he described President Bola Tinubu as a criminal.
The DSS had earlier given Sowore a one-week ultimatum, which expired on Monday, to delete the posts.
The ultimatum also demanded that X Corp and Meta take down his accounts.
