Human rights activist and presidential candidate, Omoyele Sowore, has filed two fundamental rights lawsuits at the Federal High Court, Abuja, against the State Security Service (SSS), Meta Platforms Inc. (owners of Facebook), and X Corp. (formerly Twitter).
The suits, filed through his lawyer Tope Temokun, challenge what Sowore described as “unconstitutional censorship” of his social media accounts, following the deletion of his posts referring to President Bola Tinubu as a “criminal.”
According to Temokun, the case is not merely about Sowore but about the survival of free speech in Nigeria.
“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 whim of those in power,” he said.
The lawsuit seeks three key declarations:
- That the SSS lacks legal authority to censor Nigerians on social media.
- That Meta and X must not serve as tools of repression by bowing to government pressure.
- That Sowore’s rights—and by extension, those of all Nigerians—be protected against unlawful censorship.
Temokun argued that censorship of political criticism undermines democracy and violates Section 39 of the Nigerian Constitution, which guarantees freedom of expression.
He further warned that when platforms like Meta and X comply with state-driven censorship demands, they become complicit in suppressing liberty.
“This struggle is not about personalities. It is about principle. Today it is Sowore; tomorrow it may be any Nigerian. We shall resist every attempt to turn Nigeria into a digital dictatorship,” Temokun declared.
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