Showdown: Sowore Slams DSS, Meta, And X With Explosive Court Action

Human rights activist and former presidential candidate, Omoyele Sowore, has filed a lawsuit against the Department of State Services (DSS), Meta (owners of Facebook), and X Corp. (formerly Twitter) at the Federal High Court in Abuja.

Sowore is contesting what he calls the unconstitutional censorship of his social media accounts.

In the suit, filed through his lawyer, Tope Temokun, Sowore is asking the court to restrain the DSS from pressuring social media companies to delete his posts—particularly one where he described President Bola Ahmed Tinubu as a “criminal.”

“These actions challenge the unlawful censorship orchestrated by the DSS/SSS against Sowore’s accounts on Meta and X,” Temokun said in a statement on Tuesday.

He stressed that the case is bigger than one individual, arguing:

“This is about the survival of free speech in Nigeria. If state agencies can dictate to global platforms who speaks and what may be said, then no Nigerian is safe. Voices will be silenced at the whim of those in power.”

Citing Section 39 of the 1999 Constitution, which guarantees freedom of expression, the lawyer maintained that political criticism cannot be criminalised in a democracy.

“The Nigerian Constitution is clear—every citizen has the right to free expression without interference. No security agency has the authority to suspend or erase those rights,” he added.

Temokun also warned Meta and X against yielding to illegal state pressure, insisting that complying with censorship demands makes them complicit in suppressing liberty.

The suit seeks a court declaration that the DSS lacks the legal power to police Nigerians’ online speech, that Meta and X should not enable such repression, and that Sowore’s—and by extension, Nigerians’—digital rights must be fully protected.

“This fight is not about Sowore alone,” the statement concluded. “Today it is him; tomorrow it could be you. This is about principle, not personalities. We will resist every attempt to turn Nigeria into a digital dictatorship.”