African Action Congress (AAC) presidential candidate Omoyele Sowore has asked the Department of State Services (DSS) to apologise and withdraw the alleged cybercrime case against him.
Sowore made the demand after the DSS reportedly directed its lawyer, Akinlolu Kehinde (SAN), to seek an adjournment of the case until after the 2027 presidential election.
According to sources, the move is intended to allow Sowore to participate fully in the electioneering process without the court proceedings affecting his political activities.
Speaking on a programme, Sowore rejected the proposed adjournment, insisting that the DSS should instead withdraw the charges.
“We are not seeking an adjournment. We want you [DSS] to apologise for doing this to us and to show that you compensate people who are wrongfully tried for committing no crime at all,” he said.
He also called for disciplinary action against officials responsible for what he described as a wrongful prosecution.
“You have no right to suspend the trial you have already started. You should go and withdraw your charges,” Sowore said.
The DSS filed the case against the AAC candidate over social media posts in which he referred to President Bola Tinubu as a “criminal”.
The posts were published on Sowore’s X account and Facebook page on 25 August 2025.
The DSS subsequently issued him a seven-day ultimatum to remove the posts. After Sowore refused to comply, the agency approached the Federal High Court in Abuja for a determination of whether it was lawful for an individual to publicly describe the president or another person as a “criminal”.
The DSS initially included X, formerly Twitter, and Meta, Facebook’s parent company, as defendants in the suit.
The Federal High Court later struck out the two technology companies from the case, leaving Sowore as the sole defendant.
Sowore said the decision to seek an adjournment was inconsistent with democratic principles.
“This is not the country that we fought for democracy for—a country where somebody can just wake up because he’s the DG of DSS, go arrest somebody, detain them permanently or disrupt their lives, and then realise that you want to suspend [the case],” he said.
The former presidential candidate also accused security agencies of exerting undue influence over the judiciary.
“They have been controlling the judiciary; the judiciary is an appendage of the security,” he alleged.
Sowore further recalled his previous encounters with the authorities, including his detention after missing a court appearance and an earlier treason case.
He said the prolonged legal battles had caused significant hardship for him and his family.
“I was charged with treason and kept in Nigeria for five years. They did everything they could. Within that period, you know, my family was almost completely ruined,” he said.
