The trial over the alleged defamation of President Bola Tinubu by human rights activist Omoyele Sowore officially began on Wednesday, January 21, at the Federal High Court in Abuja, with the Department of State Services (DSS) calling its first witness.
Testifying before Justice Mohammed Umar, DSS operative Cyril Nosike said a social media post by Sowore, in which he referred to President Tinubu as a “criminal,” generated public tension and posed a threat to public safety.
Nosike told the court that while on duty at the DSS cyberspace monitoring centre on August 26, 2025, he detected a post on Sowore’s X account, which 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 witness said he downloaded the video attached to the post, saved it on a flash drive marked “XYZ,” and identified it in court. The prosecution successfully tendered the video and a certificate of compliance as evidence. The court played the video, which showed President Tinubu highlighting his administration’s achievements and encouraging Brazilian businesses to invest in Nigeria, claiming the country now offered a conducive business environment with no corruption.
Nosike further testified that he had taken screenshots of public reactions to Sowore’s post. Based on the responses, the DSS sent official letters to X (formerly Twitter) and Facebook (Meta) requesting that the posts be removed, and a separate letter was sent to Sowore through his lawyers demanding a retraction—which he later posted publicly on Facebook.
The witness added that the reactions to Sowore’s posts were disparaging to the DSS and complicated the work of security agencies. Copies of the letters and screenshots were admitted as evidence.
At the close of the witness’s examination-in-chief, the court invited the defence to begin cross-examination. Defence counsel Marshall Abubakar requested time to study the testimony, which the court granted, though a new date was not set.
