Amnesty International has criticised the Department of State Services (DSS) for attempting to silence activist Omoyele Sowore online.
The organisation called on the Nigerian authorities to “immediately withdraw the unlawful demand” and to stop targeting activists and critical voices.
Amnesty International Nigeria has condemned what it described as a “shocking attempt at censorship” by the Department of State Services (DSS) after the agency asked social media platform X (formerly Twitter) to delete a post by human rights activist Omoyele Sowore critical of President Bola Tinubu.
In a statement on Sunday, the rights group said X had already notified Sowore of the demand, which it said amounted to a brazen move to silence dissent and generate fear among Nigerians on social media.
“The DSS targeting of Sowore’s X account is being done without any legal justification, as recognized under international human rights law and that this represents a violation of Nigeria’s obligations under the Nigerian Constitution 1999 [as amended] the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Nigeria has ratified both human rights treaties,” Amnesty said.
It described the request for Sowore’s account deactivation as “outrageous” and a clear abuse of power, stressing that Nigeria, having ratified key human rights treaties, must respect the rights of citizens online.
The organisation called on the Nigerian authorities to “immediately withdraw the unlawful demand” and to stop targeting activists and critical voices.
Amnesty further urged X not to bow to government pressure, saying the platform must do all in its power to protect freedom of expression and resist censorship demands targeting the voices of activists.
“Nigerian authorities must refrain from violating human rights online, including the rights to freedom of expression and privacy and fulfil their constitutional and international human rights obligations,” it said.
“On its part, X must not yield to censorship demands of Nigerian government, through targeting of the voices of activists, and must do all in its power to protect freedom of expression on its platform.”
Background
Earlier, SaharaReporters reported that the DSS had formally petitioned the management of X, demanding the immediate suspension or deactivation of Sowore’s verified account over a post it described as a threat to national security.
In a letter signed by B. Bamigboye, for the Director General, State Services, dated September 6, 2025, and addressed to the Chairman and CEO of X Corp in Texas, United States, the DSS alleged that Sowore’s post constituted hate speech, cybercrime, and incitement to violence against the President of Nigeria, Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
According to the DSS, Sowore, through his handle @YeleSowore, made a post on August 25, 2025, at 11:38 PM, in which he wrote: “This criminal @officialABAT actually went to Brazil to state that there is NO MORE corruption under his regime in Nigeria. What audacity to lie shamelessly!”
The secret police described the statement as “personally directed at Mr. President” and said it had “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.”
The DSS claimed that Sowore’s “tweet under reference is against the transparency on X and Government has frowned at it and found it extremely dangerous, false, privacy violation behavior that manipulate and negatively impacts on the person of the President and the Country”.
Citing Nigerian law, the DSS said the post violates Section 51 of the Criminal Code Act Cap.77, which prohibits the publication of false information, as well as provisions of the Cyber Crimes Act 2025, which criminalises spreading fake news, offensive content, and statements intended to provoke ethnic, religious, or tribal hatred. It also referenced the Terrorism (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022, arguing that Sowore’s words could amount to domestic terrorism.
“The author and purveyor of the inflammatory online publication against Mr. President is very much aware that the publication is also prohibited by Section 2(3) of the Terrorism (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022 and other relevant Laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria,” the DSS said.
“It is not in doubt that the words employed by Mr. Omoyele Sowore is misleading information, online harassment and abuse, willful intention of furthering an ideology capable of serious harm, hate speech, cause disunity, discredit/disparage the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria within the Comity of Nations to damage the image of Nigeria and cause serious threat to national security of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”
The DSS therefore requested X Corp to urgently delete Sowore’s post and deactivate his account, warning that both the author and the platform could be held “criminally liable” under Nigerian law.
“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 DSS said.
THIS STORY ORIGINALLY APPEARED AT SAHARA REPORTERS