Media platform, X, is yet to respond to the mandate by the Department of State Services (DSS), demanding the immediate deactivation of activist Omoyele Sowore’s account within 24 hours, which ran out on Monday.
According to a story in FoI Coalition site, at about 1:24 am on Sunday, the DSS, via its official X handle @OfficialDSSNG, published its letter dated September 6 had written to X Corp, the organisation that runs X (formerly Twitter).
According to the letter signed by B. Bamigboye for the Director-General of State Services, Sowore, the publisher of Sahara Reporters, published an offensive post on August 25 referring to President Bola Tinubu as a criminal and accusing him of lying about Nigeria’s corruption status.
The DSS claimed that Nigerians were protesting over this post, and it had caused a breakdown of law and order in the country.
They demanded a deletion of the post and deactivation of the @YeleSowore account within 24 hours, lest “the Federal Government will be compelled to take far-reaching, sweeping and across-the-board measures through our Organisation, whose mandate covers such criminal acts”.
The letter titled, “RE: MISLEADING INFORMATION AND WILLFUL, INTENTION TO FURTHERING AN IDEOLOGY CAPABLE OF SERIOUS HARM, INCITEMENT TO VIOLENCE, CYBER CRIME, HATE SPEECH TO DISCREDIT/DISPARAGE THE PRESIDENT O F THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA AND CAUSE SERIOUS THREAT TO NATIONAL SECURITY OF THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA. DEMAND FOR IMMEDIATE AND URGENT BAN/DEACTIVATION OF AN X ACCOUNT OWNED BY OMOYELE SOWORE THROUGH HIS VERIFIED X HANDLE @YELESOWORE OR ANY OTHER X ACCOUNT MAINTAINED BY HIM”, read in part: “We detected and monitored with dismay and consternation a widely condemned publication/trending Tweet by Omoyele Sowore on his X official handle page @YeleSowore on 25th August, 2025 about 11:38 PM local time (23:38 hours) WAT disparaging and ridiculing the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
The offending Tweet, the DSS said read: ‘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!’
The security agency noted that those words were personally directed at Mr. President through his official communication channel @officialABAT which is the known X handle of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. The said tweet is herewith attached and will be referenced on herein for emphasis and necessary action.
“The said tweet is still in circulation and has attracted widespread condemnation by 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 Government has frowned at it and found it extremely dangerous, false, privacy violation behavior that manipulate and negatively impacts on the person of the President and the Country. It is pertinent to bring to your knowledge that under the Nigerian Law, these quoted tweets/words constitute offence punishable in Section 51 of the Criminal Code Act Cap.77 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, which prohibits publication of false information; Sections 19,22 and 24 of the Cyber Crimes Act 2025 which prohibits and makes it an offence to spread fake news or publishing content that is deliberately misleading or deceptive, posting content that is rude, vulgar, offensive, or indecent, especially with the intent to embarrass or humiliate others, provoke ethnic, religious, or tribal hatred through online or offline statements; amounting to domestic terrorism. The Law also makes the offender and the medium through which the offence is perpetrated/propagated culpable and criminally liable too.”
The DSS concluded: “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 re-tweets.
This demand is unequivocal with its attendant consequence. Should you fail, neglect and refuse to comply with the command in this notice, the Federal Government will be compelled to take far-reaching, sweeping and across-the-board measures through our Organization, whose mandate covers such criminal acts.
In the light of the above having been made official to you, 24 hours is sufficient enough to take necessary action.”
On June 5, 2021, former president Muhammadu Buhari banned Twitter in Nigeria after the platform deleted a hateful post he had made.
Buhari kept Twitter suspended for six months, until the suspension was lifted in January 2022.
