The Department of State Services (DSS) has asked X (formerly Twitter) to immediately deactivate the verified account of Omoyele Sowore, publisher of Sahara Reporters and former presidential candidate.
In a letter dated September 6 and signed by B. Bamigboye on behalf of the Director-General, the DSS said Sowore’s recent post about President Bola Tinubu could incite violence and threaten national security.
Sowore, reacting to Tinubu’s comments on corruption during a trip to Brazil on August 25, described the president as a “criminal.” The DSS said the post ridiculed Tinubu before the international community and sparked protests from some of the president’s supporters.
According to the DSS, the post amounted to “misleading information, online harassment, hate speech, and a willful attempt to cause disunity and damage Nigeria’s image.”
The security agency further stated that Sowore’s comment violated Nigerian laws, citing the Criminal Code, Cybercrime Act, and Terrorism Prevention Act. It warned that the publication could be treated as an act of “domestic terrorism.”
The DSS told X Corp to remove the post and deactivate Sowore’s account within 24 hours, stressing that both Sowore and the platform could be held criminally liable if the order was ignored.
“It is against the above highlighted backdrop that we make an immediate and urgent demand on your corporation to… TAKE DOWN the tweet and its attendant re-tweets,” the letter said.
The DSS also warned that failure to comply would force the federal government to take “far-reaching, sweeping and across-the-board measures” through its agency.
Sowore Responds
Following the DSS letter, X officially informed Sowore about the request. In its message, X said the DSS claimed his post violated Nigerian laws but clarified that it had not taken any action on the content.
X stated: “As X strongly believes in defending and respecting the voice of our users, it is our policy to notify our users if we receive a legal request from an authorized entity (such as law enforcement or a government agency) to remove content from their account. We have not taken any action on the reported content at this time as a result of this request.”
Reacting through a post on Saturday, Sowore said he would not delete the tweet.
“This morning, X (formerly Twitter) officially contacted me about the despicable threat letter they received from the lawless DSS over my Tweet on Tinubu. One option I will NOT be taking is deleting that Tweet. Thank you, @X,” Sowore wrote.
