Omoyele Sowore, the 2023 African Action Congress (AAC) presidential candidate, has filed two fundamental rights actions at the Federal High Court in Abuja against the Department of State Services (DSS) and social media giants Meta (Facebook) and X Corp.
A statement released by Sowore’s legal team on Tuesday, signed by Tope Temokun, said the lawsuits challenge what they described as “unconstitutional censorship” targeting Sowore’s accounts on Meta and X. His lawyers emphasized that the case is about protecting free speech in Nigeria, warning that “if state agencies can dictate to global platforms who may speak and what may be said, then no Nigerian is safe; their voices will be silenced at the whims of those in power.”
They highlighted that “censorship of political criticism is alien to democracy,” noting that Section 39 of the Nigerian Constitution guarantees every citizen the right to freedom of expression without interference. “No security agency, no matter how powerful, can suspend or delete those rights,” they added.
Sowore’s legal team further urged Meta and X to recognize that complying with unlawful censorship demands makes them complicit in suppressing the struggle for liberty. “They cannot hide behind neutrality while authoritarianism is exported onto their platforms,” the statement said.
Among the legal prayers before the court are demands that the DSS be declared without legal authority to censor Nigerians on social media, that Meta and X must not allow their platforms to be used as tools of repression, and that Sowore’s rights—and by extension, the rights of all Nigerians—be fully protected against unlawful censorship.
The statement called on freedom advocates, journalists, human rights defenders, and Nigerians at large to stand firm, warning, “Today it is @YeleSowore; tomorrow it may be you. This struggle is not about personalities. It is about principle. And we shall resist every attempt to turn Nigeria into a digital dictatorship.”
Sowore’s suit was filed just hours after the DSS brought a five-count charge against him at the Federal High Court, Abuja, naming X Corp and Meta Inc. as defendants as well.
