Sunday, September 7, 2025 - The Department of State Services (DSS) has petitioned the Chairman and CEO of popular social media app, X (formerly Twitter), Elon Musk, over a tweet by activist Omoyele Sowore.
In the petition addressed to the Chairman and CEO of X Corp.
Bastrop County in Texas, United States of America (USA) and dated September
6,2025, the security agency accused Sowore of targeting President Bola Ahmed
Tinubu with a disparaging and ridiculous tweet capable of creating political
tension and threatening the country’s national security.
The DSS said on August 25, he made a post on his X handle
that 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 DSS accused Sowore of “spreading misleading information
and willful intention to furthering an ideology capable of serious harm,
incitement to violence, cyber crime, hate speech to discredit Tinubu.” It
called on the social media company to ban or deactivate the verified X handle
of the former presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC).
The agency demanded for the tweet to be deleted alongside
the retweets and also the deactivation of Sowore's handle. It warned that
should X not take any action on its demand, the Federal Government will be
compelled to take “far-reaching, sweeping and across-the-board measures through
our Organization, whose mandate covers such criminal acts.”
The statement reads:
“The
Chairman and CEO X Corp. Bastrop County, Texas USA Email: press@x.com
RE:
MISLEADING INFORMATION AND WILLFUL, INTENTION TO FURTHERING AN IDEOLOGY CAPABLE
OF SERIOUS HARM,
INCITEMENT
TO VIOLENCE, CYBER CRIME, HATE SPEECH TO DISCREDIT/DISPARAGE THE PRESIDENT O F
THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA AND CAUSE SERIOUS THREAT TO NATIONAL SECURITY
OF THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA.
DEMAND FOR
IMMEDIATE AND URGENT BAN/DEACTIVATION OF AN X ACCOUNT OWNED BY OMOYELE SOWORE
THROUGH HIS VERIFIED X HANDLE @YELESOWORE OR ANY OTHER X ACCOUNT MAINTAINED BY
HIM.
We detected
and monitored with dismay and consternation a widely condemned
publication/trending Tweet by Omoyele Sowore on his X official handle page
@YeleSowore on 25th August, 2025 about 11:38 PM local time (2338 hours) WAT
disparaging and ridiculing the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
The Tweet
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!”
“Those words
were personally directed at Mr. President through his official communication
channel @officialABAT which is the known X handle of the President of the
Federal Republic of Nigeria. The said tweet is herewith attached and will be
referenced on herein for emphasis and necessary action.
“The said
tweet is still in circulation and has attracted widespread condemnation by
majority of Nigerians, some of whom may resort to unwholesome activities to
vent their grievance over it, especially supporters of the President who have
started taking to the streets in protest, thereby creating political tension
and threatening the country’s national security. This is in addition to the
disparaging effect the tweet has on the reputation of Mr. President and the
country before the comity of nations.
“The tweet
under reference is against the transparency on X and Government has frowned at
it and found it extremely dangerous, false, privacy violation behavior that
manipulate and negatively impacts on the person of the President and the
Country.
“It is
pertinent to bring to your knowledge that under the Nigerian Law, these quoted
tweets/words constitute offence punishable in Section 51 of the Criminal Code
Act Cap.77 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, which prohibits publication of
false information; Sections 19,22 and 24 of the Cyber Crimes Act 2025 which
prohibits and makes it an offence to spread fake news or publishing content
that is deliberately misleading or deceptive, posting content that is rude,
vulgar, offensive, or indecent, especially with the intent to embarrass or
humiliate others, provoke ethnic, religious, or tribal hatred through online or
offline statements; amounting to domestic terrorism. The Law also makes the
offender and the medium through which the offence is perpetrated/propagated
culpable and criminally liable too. The author and purveyor of the inflammatory
online publication against Mr. President is very much aware that the
publication is also prohibited by Section 2(3) of the Terrorism (Prevention and
Prohibition) Act, 2022 and other relevant Laws of the Federal Republic of
Nigeria.
“It is not
in doubt that the words employed by Mr. Omoyele Sowore is misleading
information, online harassment and abuse, willful intention of furthering an
ideology capable of serious harm, hate speech, cause disunity,
discredit/disparage the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria within the
Comity of Nations to damage the image of Nigeria and cause serious threat to
national security of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
It is
against the above highlighted backdrop that we make an immediate and urgent
demand on your Corporation to as a matter of its own policy, immediately TAKE
DOWN the tweet and its attendant re-tweets.
This demand
is unequivocal with its attendant consequence. Should you fail, neglect and
refuse to comply with the command in this notice, the Federal Government will
be compelled to take far-reaching, sweeping and across-the-board measures
through our Organization, whose mandate covers such criminal acts.
In the light
of the above having been made official to you, 24 hours is sufficient enough to
take necessary action.
Yours
Faithfully
B.
Bamigboye, fsi
For:
Director General State Services.
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