DSS asks X to ban Sowore’s account over Tinubu post, threatens ‘far-reaching measures’

The Department of State Services (DSS) has written to X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, demanding the urgent deactivation of Omoyele Sowore’s verified account.

The agency said one of Sowore’s recent posts on President Bola Tinubu is capable of inciting violence and threatening national security.

The DSS noted that 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.

In the letter dated September 6 and signed by B. Bamigboye for the director-general of the service, the DSS said the “tweet” ridiculed the president before the international community.

“The said tweet is still in circulation and has attracted widespread condemnation by majority of Nigerians, some of whom may resort to unwholesome activities to vent their grievance over it, especially supporters of the President who have started taking to the streets in protest, thereby creating political tension and threatening the country’s national security,” the letter reads.

The agency described Sowore’s post as “misleading information, online harassment, hate speech, and a willful attempt to cause disunity and damage Nigeria’s image”.

“The author and purveyor of the inflammatory online publication against Mr President is very much aware that the publication is prohibited by Nigerian law,” the DSS wrote.

It cited sections of the criminal code, the cybercrime act, and the terrorism prevention act, saying the post amounted to an offence that could be classified as “domestic terrorism”.

The DSS insisted that X Corp must remove the post and deactivate Sowore’s account, warning that failure to comply within 24 hours would force the federal government to take “far-reaching measures”.

The agency added that both Sowore and X Corp could be held criminally liable for the publication and its circulation and asked that the post and the attendant reposts be taken down.

“It is against the above highlighted backdrop that we make an immediate and urgent demand on your Corporation to as a matter of its own policy, immediately TAKE DOWN the tweet and its attendant re-tweets,” the letter added.

“This demand is unequivocal with its attendant consequence.

“Should you fail, neglect and refuse to comply with the command in this notice, the Federal Government will be compelled to take far-reaching, sweeping and across-the-board measures through our Organization, whose mandate covers such criminal acts.

“In the light of the above having been made official to you, 24 hours is sufficient enough to take necessary action.”