Sowore pleads ‘not guilty’, secures bail in cybercrime case

The Department of State Services (DSS) has arraigned Omoyele Sowore, activist and publisher of Sahara Reporters, over alleged cybercrimes.

Sowore was arraigned on Tuesday before Mohammed Umar, a judge at the federal high court in Abuja. He pleaded not guilty to the charges.

On September 23, DSS filed a five-count charge against Sowore. The suit, marked FHC/ABJ/CR/484/2025, also lists X (formerly Twitter) and Meta (Facebook) as co-defendants.

The charges stem from Sowore’s August 25 post on X, where he described President Bola Tinubu as a “criminal” while reacting to the president’s remarks on corruption during a trip to Brazil.

Before the filing, the DSS had written to X demanding the suspension of Sowore’s account and asked him to retract his post and tender a public apology in national media within a week.

After Sowore refused to comply, the DSS proceeded with legal action, with September 30 set for his arraignment. Previous attempts to arraign the publisher were unsuccessful.

After Sowore took his plea on Tuesday, Marshal Abubakar, his lawyer, moved the bail application for his client citing self-recognition since the publisher is a former presidential candidate.

Abubakar urged the court to grant Sowore bail in the most liberal terms since he does not have any record of jumping bail.

Opposing the bail application, Akinlolu Kehinde, the prosecution counsel, asked the court not to grant bail to Sowore and even if the court decided to grant bail, it should be with stringent conditions.

The counsel argued that Sowore has a history of committing other offences when granted bail.

Ruling on the bail application, the trial judge said records show that Sowore always attends the court proceedings, his travel passport is with the court registry, and he was previously granted bail by the court.

Umar declined to accede to the demand of the prosecutor that the bail conditions for Sowore should be on stringent terms.

The judge granted bail to Sowore on self-recognition.

He, however, warned Sowore to conduct himself and avoid comments that are capable of derailing the peace of the country.