A new book by journalist and author Richard Akinnola has revealed how former Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, clashed with the Department of State Services (DSS) during the Muhammadu Buhari administration over the agency’s refusal to obey a court order for the release of Omoyele Sowore.
In the book titled “I Write What I Like”, Akinnola recounted how Osinbajo resisted the DSS’s defiance of the judiciary in 2019, at the peak of Sowore’s detention. According to him, the then Vice President was deeply concerned about the implications of ignoring court orders.
“Osinbajo said he had a job to go back to after leaving the office and he could not be around when such an order was being flouted. The DSS had told him that there could not be two presidents, a veiled reference to how Osinbajo, as acting president in 2018, sacked Lawal Daura as DG of DSS,” Akinnola wrote.
He narrated how he personally booked an appointment with Osinbajo in 2019, urging him to intervene in Sowore’s case. “Nonetheless, I still decided to see him, so that he could put more pressure on his government, which he did that day, and Sowore was released the same day I came to see him,” Akinnola revealed.
The author also disclosed how he sometimes used back channels for advocacy, citing the case of detained Shi’ite leader, Sheikh Ibrahim El-Zakzaky, who was eventually granted bail through similar efforts.
The 198-page book, divided into 20 chapters, compiles some of Akinnola’s notable Facebook posts between 2017 and 2025.
The unveiling of the book is scheduled for Saturday, September 13, at the Airport Hotel, Lagos, coinciding with Akinnola’s 67th birthday summit. Themed “A Handshake Across the Niger: The Yoruba/Igbo Détente”, the event will be chaired by the Aare Ona Kakanfo of Yorubaland, Iba Gani Adams.
