Human rights activist and former presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC), Omoyele Sowore, has rejected a demand by the Department of State Services (DSS) asking him to retract his social media posts against President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
In a letter addressed to the Director-General of the DSS and shared on Friday, Sowore confirmed receiving the agency’s correspondence requesting him to delete a tweet and Facebook post critical of the President.
He described the move as “unlawful, insidious and fundamentally defective,” insisting that the secret police had no legal basis to act as a proxy for the President in matters of defamation.
Tracing his long history of clashes with security agencies, Sowore accused the DSS of repeated rights violations dating back to his student union days in the 1990s, his detention during the military era, and his abduction and prosecution under the Muhammadu Buhari administration. He also cited previous court rulings, including Arthur Nwankwo v. State (1985), which struck down sedition laws, to argue that criticism of public officials is protected under the Nigerian Constitution and international conventions.
Sowore maintained that freedom of expression is indispensable in a democracy and vowed not to comply with the DSS directive. “You have no business telling me how to criticise the President,” he wrote, declaring that Nigerians remain determined to “reclaim their country from thieves in power.”
The DSS has not yet issued a public response to Sowore’s rejection of its demand.
