The arraignment of Omoyele Sowore over allegations of
defaming President Bola Tinubu was stalled owing to the failure of the
prosecution to serve the defendants with the charges.
The Department of State Services (DSS) filed a five-count
charge before a federal high court in Abuja.
X Corp, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter,
and Meta (Facebook) Inc. were also joined as defendants in the suit marked
FHC/ABJ/CR/484/2025 and filed on September 23.
Sowore, publisher of Sahara Reporters and former
presidential candidate, had on August 25 described Tinubu as a “criminal” while
reacting to the president’s comments on corruption during a recent trip to
Brazil.
The DSS had earlier written to X, demanding the urgent
deactivation of Sowore’s verified account.
Also, in a letter dated September 7, and signed by Uwem
Davies on behalf of Adeola Ajayi, the director-general of the DSS, the secret
police asked Sowore to retract his post on X and tender a public apology within
one week.
The service ordered Sowore to retract the statement with the
same prominence on X, publish apologies in at least two national newspapers and
two television stations, and submit a formal representation to its headquarters
in Abuja or via email.
Sowore had refused, prompting the DSS to file a criminal
charge against him, with September 30 fixed for arraignment.
‘NOT BEEN PERSONALLY SERVED’
However, at the court session on Tuesday, Marshal Abubakar,
counsel to Sowore, objected to his client taking a plea. Abubakar said the
defendant had not been served with the charge.
He added that in a joint criminal matter, all the parties in
the case must be in court or represented by counsel before jurisdiction can be
activated. He therefore urged the court to ask the prosecution to do the
needful.
Responding, M.B. Abubakar, prosecution counsel, said all the
defendants in the matter have been served and proof of service is in the
court’s record.
However, after going through the court’s records, Umar
Muhammad, presiding judge, noted that the first defendant had not been
personally served, while the two other defendants were served electronically
(via email).
The prosecution then made an oral application for the first
defendant to be served in court, to which defence counsel did not object.
Having been served, the prosecution asked for the matter to
continue, but Sowore’s lawyer said the law provides for a minimum of three days
after serving an accused person before an arraignment can be made.
The judge agreed with him and said an adjournment would be
granted to give the defendant room to go through the charge before entering his
plea.
Mofeso Oyetibo, counsel to the third defendant (Meta),
informed the court that they had just been served a copy of the charge in
court.
He noted that he could not see any count against the third
defendant, wondering why they were included.
The case was subsequently adjourned to October 27
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