The Federal Government, on Tuesday, filed a five-count charge against activist and former presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC), Omoyele Sowore, for describing President Bola Tinubu as a “criminal” in a social media post.
The charge, entered before the Federal High Court in Abuja through the Director of Public Prosecutions, Federal Ministry of Justice, M. B. Abubakar, also cited social media platforms X (formerly Twitter) and Meta (owners of Facebook) as the 2nd and 3rd defendants.
According to the government, Sowore’s post of August 25—made after Tinubu declared during an official visit to Brazil that his administration had ended corruption in Nigeria—was intended to incite a breakdown of law and order and to malign the President’s reputation.
The Department of State Services (DSS) had earlier written to both X and Meta, demanding Sowore’s account be suspended and the post deleted. It also issued a letter to Sowore himself with a similar request. The refusal of both the activist and the platforms to comply reportedly triggered Tuesday’s court action.
The charges, marked FHC/ABJ/CR/484/2025, alleged that Sowore violated Section 24 (1)(b) of the Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention, etc) Amendment Act, 2024, as well as Sections 59 and 375 of the Criminal Code Act.
Among the exhibits the prosecution intends to rely on are printouts of Sowore’s posts on X and Facebook, and the DSS correspondence with the platforms.
In part, one of the counts reads:
“That you, Omoyele Sowore, on or about August 25, 2025, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, used your official X handle, @YeleSowore, to send out a message which you knew to be false, with the intent to cause a breakdown of law and order in the country, especially among individuals who hold divergent views on the personality of the President…”
The court is yet to fix a date for the arraignment of Sowore and the co-defendants.
