Sowore vows to resist DSS after it urged Facebook to ban his account for criticising Tinubu, calling the secret police incompetent and idle.
The clash between Sahara Reporters publisher, Omoyele Sowore, and Nigeria’s secret police, the Department of State Services (DSS), deepened over the weekend after the agency reportedly asked Meta, owners of Facebook, to deactivate his account.
According to a letter dated September 7, 2025, and signed by Uwem Davies on behalf of the Director-General, the DSS accused Sowore of circulating “misleading information” in a post he made on August 26.
The post had criticised President Bola Tinubu’s comments during an official trip to Brazil, where Sowore alleged the President had lied about corruption in Nigeria.
The agency, in its strongly worded correspondence to Meta’s headquarters in Menlo Park, California, argued that the publication posed a threat to public peace and national security.
The letter bore the lengthy title: “Misleading Information and Willful Intention to Further an Ideology Capable of Serious Harm, Incitement to Violence, Cyber Crime, Hate Speech to Discredit/Disparage the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and Cause Serious Threat to National Security of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”
Beyond raising alarm over Sowore’s online remarks, the DSS insisted that Meta should “immediately and urgently” shut down all Facebook pages or accounts connected to the activist.
It also invoked several laws, citing provisions from the Criminal Code Act, the Cyber Crimes Act 2025, and the Terrorism (Prevention and Prohibition) Act 2022 as justification for its request.
The Service further threatened “far-reaching consequences” if Meta failed to comply within 24 hours, setting September 8, 2025, as the deadline.
This move followed a similar action taken a day earlier against X (formerly Twitter), where the DSS gave the company 24 hours to delete Sowore’s tweet labelling President Tinubu a “criminal.”
At the same time, the Service issued a formal summons to the activist, directing him to withdraw the remark, publish a retraction, and apologise publicly within one week—or risk facing unspecified legal action.
DSS summons Sowore over Tinubu social media post
Sowore, however, has rejected the DSS’s demands, accusing the agency of abusing power while failing in its primary duty of safeguarding Nigerians.
He described the secret police as “lawless and incompetent,” pointing out that over 130 people were recently killed in violent attacks, yet the DSS seemed more interested in policing social media than addressing real security threats.
“Too idle and incompetent to secure Nigeria… now begging @facebook to delete posts they find ‘offensive’ to their equally tired and criminal Commander-in-Chief,” Sowore wrote in his reaction on X.
The activist vowed to stand by his words, insisting he would not be intimidated into silence.
