The Federal Government, through the Department of State Services (DSS), has filed a five-count charge of publishing defamatory material on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu against political activist, journalist and publisher of Sahara Reporters, Omoyele Sowore and two global social media giants, namely X Incorporated, the successor company to Twitter, and Meta Incorporated, formerly known as Facebook.
Although no wrongdoing was alleged against any of the social media platforms in any of the five counts filed at the Federal High Court in Abuja, in which Sowore is listed as the first defendant, X is named as second defendant, while Meta is charged as the third defendant. The “Federal Republic of Nigeria” is named as the Complainant.
But the Federal Government is accusing Sowore of knowingly publishing false information, seeking to cause public fear and disturbance, and posting the message on social media for the purpose of causing a breakdown of law and order in the country, especially among individuals who hold divergent views on the personality of the President.
Dated September 16, 2025, the charges were filed by Mr. M.B. Abubakar, Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) at the Federal Ministry of Justice, leading Mr. M. E Ernest, Mr U.B. Bulla, Dr. C. S. Eze, and Mr E. G. Orubor as counsel to the prosecution, on behalf of the DSS.
The charges are:
• Count One: That Sowore, on or about August 25, 2025, within the jurisdiction of the Court used his official X handle, @Yele Sowore, to send out a message/tweet in the following terms: “This criminal @officialPBAT actually went to Brazil to state that there is no more corruption under his regime in Nigeria. What audacity to lie shamelessly”, knowing the message to be false but posted it for the purpose of causing a breakdown of law and order in the country, especially among individuals who hold divergent views on the personality of the President, and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 24(1)(b) of the Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention, etc) Amendment Act, 2024;
• Count Two: That Sowore, on or about August 26, 2025 within the jurisdiction of the Court, used his official Facebook page to send out the same message which he knew to be false but posted it for the purpose of causing a breakdown of law and order in the country, especially among individuals who hold divergent views on the personality of the President and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 24(1)(b) of the Cybercrimes Amendment Act, 2024;
• Count Three: That Sowore, on or about August 25, 2025, within the jurisdiction of the Court, using the instrumentality of X, via his official X account, @Yele Sowore, knowingly published the same alleged defamatory material on his online platform against the personality of the President and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 375 of the Criminal Code Act;
• Count Four: That Sowore, on or about August 26, 2025, within the jurisdiction of the Court, using the instrumentality of Facebook, via his official Facebook account, knowingly published the same alleged defamatory material on his online platform against the personality and reputation of the President and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 375 of the Criminal Code Act; and
• Count Five: That Sowore, on or about August 26, 2025 within the jurisdiction of the Court, which intent to cause public fear and disturbance, published false information on his official X and Facebook accounts respectively, against the personality and reputation of the President and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 59 of the Criminal Code Act and punishable under same Act.
None of the counts alleged that either X or Meta committed any offence.
No date has been fixed for the hearing.
