Omoyele Sowore, the publisher of Sahara Reporters, announced on Friday that he is willing to defend himself in court pending the formation of a new legal team in the ongoing alleged cyberbullying case.
Sowore informed Justice Mohammed Umar of the Federal High Court in Abuja shortly after the matter was summoned to begin his defense.
According to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), Justice Umar scheduled the defendant’s defense to begin today.
The court, who denied Sowore’s counsel, Marshall Abubakar, an oral request for a lengthy adjournment, ordered that the trial be conducted on a daily basis.
Sowore is being prosecuted by the Department of State Services (DSS) for allegedly making false claims against the person of President Bola Tinubu by referring to him as “a criminal” in a post he made on his “X” and Facebook accounts.
Upon resuming the hearing on Friday, only DSS lawyer Akinlolu Kehinde, SAN, was in court when the case was called.
Abubakar, Sowore’s counsel, was conspicuously absent.
When the defendant, who was already in the dock, was asked by the judge about the whereabouts of his lawyer, he said that upon the ruling of the judge the previous day that the trial would proceed on a day-to-day basis, his lawyers were afraid to appear before Justice Umar.
“Our lawyers indicated to me they are afraid before you and will not appear any longer because of the humiliation they suffered before this court.
“And pending the time I am able to reconstitute a new legal team, I shall be representing myself before your lordship,” he said.
The defendant then informed the court that he had two applications that he had filed, and one of them had already been served on the prosecution.
“A motion on notice filed yesterday, June 4, 2026, and served on the prosecutor earlier this morning.
“The application is a motion on notice for a recusal,” he said.
Sowore therefore requested permission to move the application for recusal, and the DSS lawyer did not oppose.
Moving his application, the defendant sought an order requiring the judge to recuse himself or withdraw from the case due to bias and humiliation.
He invoked Section 36(1)(5) and (6) of the 1999 Constitution to support his argument and begged the court to grant him relief.
Kehinde, who sought the court to allow him leave to answer on grounds of law, claimed that Sowore’s motion was fundamentally flawed.
“This application is fundamentally incompetent, as there is no name of the counsel that prepared the motion and attached it to the motion paper,” he said.
But the judge said a lawyer signed the copy of the application in the court file.
“From my record here, the person that signed it is Marshall Abubakar,” Justice Umar said.
“Mine was not signed, my lord,” Kehinde responded.
“We presume it is Marshall Abubakar that signed it. I will not condone any technical move from you,” the judge told Kehinde.
In response to Sowore’s move, the DSS counsel condemned the application as “an abuse of the court process meant to annoy and irritate this court.”
According to him, this court is bound by the records of this honorable court, where a letter sent by the chief judge on May 22 directed that this matter proceed.
He stated that the letter had been copied to all parties.
“Moreover, there is a subsisting order of this court that the defense must commence today, and the option is for the defense to be foreclosed if the defendant is not ready,” he said.
The lawyer prayed the court would refuse the application.
Justice Umar said that to do justice to the application, he would have to go through the defendant’s process.
“I will adjourn this case to Monday for ruling,” he said.
But Sowore begged for more time to enable him to get lawyers, adding that this was also “in view of the Democracy Day celebration.”
The judge reminded him that an order had already been made for a day-to-day hearing of the case.
“My lord, take judicial notice that I have attended this case from day one. I am just asking for indulgence for at least a week to come,” he prayed.
Justice Umar adjourned the matter until June 15 for ruling and for defense.
