The publisher of Sahara Reporters, Omoyele Sowore, has criticized the Federal Government after the Department of State Services on Sunday asked Meta, the parent company of Facebook, to deactivate his account over a post he made against President Bola Tinubu.
Chronicle NG reports that the DSS had written to X earlier on Saturday, giving the company 24 hours to remove Sowore’s tweet describing Tinubu as a criminal.
The DSS described the comment as libelous and harmful to national security, but Sowore promised not to remove it.
In a Monday post on his X, Sowore stated that the Service has expanded the suspension request to Facebook.
In a letter dated September 7, 2025, signed by Uwem Davies on behalf of the DSS Director General, the agency referred to the same post from August 26, in which Sowore criticized Tinubu’s comments during a visit to Brazil and accused him of lying about corruption.
The DSS accused Sowore of distributing “misleading information” and participating in “hate speech” in a post dated August 26, 2025.
The letter was addressed to Meta’s headquarters in Menlo Park, California, and was titled “Misleading Information and Willful Intention to Further an Ideology Capable of Serious Harm, Incitement to Violence, Cyber Crime, and Hate Speech to Discredit/Disparage the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and Cause Serious Threat to National Security of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”
The DSS demanded “the immediate and urgent ban/deactivation of a Facebook account owned by Omoyele Sowore through his Facebook page or any other account maintained by him.”
To substantiate its demand, the DSS cited many legal provisions, including Section 51 of the Criminal Code Act, Sections 19, 22, and 24 of the Cyber Crimes Act 2025, and the Terrorism (Prevention and Prohibition) Act of 2022.
The letter warns of “far-reaching, sweeping measures” if Meta does not comply within 24 hours, a deadline that expires September 8, 2025.
Sowore denounced the DSS’s actions as “lawless” and “incompetent.”
He raised concerns about the DSS’s priorities after over 130 persons were killed in a recent tragedy.
“Too idle and incompetent to secure Nigeria… has now written to @facebook, begging them to delete content they find ‘offensive’ to their equally idle, tired, and criminal Commander-in-Chief,” Sowore wrote.
