The Department of State Services (DSS) has officially petitioned X’s (formerly Twitter’s) management to suspend or deactivate activist and publisher Omoyele Sowore’s verified account immediately due to a post deemed a national security threat.
The DSS claimed that Sowore’s post was hate speech, cybercrime, and incitement to violence against Nigerian President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in a letter signed by B. Bamigboye on behalf of the Director General, State Services, dated September 6, 2025, and sent to the Chairman and CEO of X Corp in Texas, USA.
By sharing a video of Tinubu during a state visit to Brazil on August 25, Sowore, using his verified X account @YeleSowore, criticised the President’s assertion that corruption has been eradicated in Nigeria.
The former presidential candidate posted, “This criminal @officialABAT actually went to Brazil to state that there is no more corruption under his regime in Nigeria. What audacity to lie shamelessly!”
In a September 6 letter signed by B. Bamigboye on behalf of the Director-General, State Services, the DSS characterised the post as false, online harassment, and a deliberate attempt to promote an ideology.
The intelligence agency informed X Corp that the tweet was aimed at the President via his official X handle, @officialABAT.
It cautioned that some Nigerians, including the president’s supporters, might become agitated over the publication.
The letter reads, “The said tweet is still in circulation and has attracted widespread condemnation by the majority of Nigerians, some of whom may resort to unwholesome activities to vent their grievance over it, especially supporters of the President who have started taking to the streets in protest, thereby creating political tension and threatening the country’s national security.
“This is in addition to the disparaging effect the tweet has on the reputation of Mr. President and the country before the comity of nations.
“The tweet under reference is against the transparency on X, and the government has frowned at it and found it extremely dangerous, false, and a behaviour of privacy violation that manipulates and negatively impacts the person of the President and the country.”
The DSS cited several Nigerian laws it claimed the post violated, including Section 2(3) of the Terrorism (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022, Section 51 of the Criminal Code Act, and provisions of the Cyber Crimes Act, 2025.
It said the post contravenes “Sections 19,22, and 24 of the Cyber Crimes Act 2025, which prohibit and make it an offence to spread fake news or publish content, especially with the intent to embarrass or humiliate others, provoke ethnic, religious, or tribal hatred through online or offline statements; amounting to domestic terrorism.”
It added, “It is not in doubt that the words employed by Mr. Omoyele Sowore is misleading information, online harassment and abuse, willful intention of furthering an ideology capable of serious harm, hate speech, cause disunity, discredit/disparage the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria within the Comity of Nations to damage the image of Nigeria and cause serious threat to national security of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”
The organisation requested that X Corp. remove the tweet and any associated retweets in 24 hours.
“It is against the above highlighted backdrop that we make an immediate and urgent demand on your corporation to, as a matter of its own policy, immediately take down the tweet and its attendant retweets,” it added.
DSS noted that should X “fail to comply with the command, the Federal Government will be compelled to take far-reaching, sweeping and across-the-board measures.”
X responds
In response to the DSS’s request, X officially contacted Sowore, stating, “In the interest of transparency, we are writing to inform you that X has received a request from the Department of State Services regarding your X account,
@YeleSowore, that claims the following content violates the law(s) of Nigeria.”
As a result of this request, X claims it has not yet taken any action regarding the reported content.
X claims that it is its policy to inform users whenever it receives a legal request to remove content from users’ accounts from an authorised entity (like law enforcement or a government agency). It firmly believes in protecting and honouring the voice of its users.
It emphasised, “We provide notice whether or not the user lives in the country where the request originated.“
X further advises Sowore on various options to take to protect his interests.
It states, “We understand that receiving this type of notice can be an unsettling experience. While X cannot provide legal advice, we want you to have an opportunity to evaluate the request and, if you wish, take appropriate action to protect your interests. This may include seeking legal counsel and challenging the request in court, contacting relevant civil society organisations, voluntarily deleting the content (if applicable), or finding another resolution.”
However, Sowore vowed not to take down the post and instead responded to X in a letter from his lawyer, Tope Temokun.
Sowore’s lawyer responds to X
In a formal letter written to X on Sunday through his lawyer, Sowore rejected the request for censorship and asked that the DSS stop engaging in this “unconstitutional conduct”.
Sowore’s lawyer, Tope Temokun, claims that the DSS’s attempt to censor Sowore on X is unconstitutional and unlawful.
He said, “This unlawful act by the DSS is not just an attack on Sowore, but on the democratic rights of every Nigerian.”
He continued, “We wish to add in categorical language that the DSS has no constitutional or statutory power to censor citizens or procure their censorship through private platforms. The 1999 Constitution (Section 39) and the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights guarantee freedom of expression, and only a competent court of law can order restrictions on speech.”
“Should they insist or persist, we will take all necessary legal steps to protect constitutional rights and defend the freedom of expression guaranteed to all Nigerians,” he added.
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