Omoyele Sowore, activist and publisher of SaharaReporters, has taken legal action against the Department of State Services (DSS), Meta (Facebook) and X Corp, accusing them of attempting to censor his social media accounts.
Sowore, who was the presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC) in the 2023 election, filed the case at the Federal High Court in Abuja. His legal team, led by Tope Temokun, confirmed the development in a statement on Tuesday.
Describing the move as part of his fight against “digital dictatorship,” Sowore insisted that the lawsuit is not only about his personal rights but about the survival of free speech in Nigeria. He stressed that censorship of political criticism is alien to democracy, adding that Section 39 of the Nigerian Constitution guarantees freedom of expression for all citizens. According to him, no security agency has the power to suspend or delete those rights.
He also warned that Meta and X must not become complicit in unlawful censorship by bowing to authoritarian demands. He said the platforms cannot claim neutrality while providing space for repression.
In the suit, Sowore is asking the court to declare that the DSS has no power to censor Nigerians on social media and that Meta and X must not serve as tools of political repression. He also seeks protection of his rights and those of Nigerians from what he described as unlawful censorship.
His legal team called on journalists, human rights defenders, and Nigerians at large to resist every attempt to turn the country into a digital dictatorship. The statement emphasized that today’s target is Sowore, but tomorrow it could be anyone, noting that the struggle is about principle, not personality.
The activist’s legal action came just hours after the Federal Government filed a separate suit against him, accusing him of cyberbullying President Bola Tinubu. The case, filed at the Federal High Court in Abuja with suit number FHC/ABJ/CR/484/2025, also listed Meta and X Corp as co-defendants.
