Human rights activist and writer of SaharaReporters, Omoyele Sowore, has sued the State Safety Providers (SSS) and X’s mother or father firm over his put up on the social media platform name President Bola Tinubu a felony.
Mr Sowore announced the lawsuit on Tuesday by way of his verified Fb web page, though, court docket filings seen by PREMIUM TIMES present that his lawyer, Tope Temokun, instituted the motion on 9 September.
However Mr Sowore made the announcement on Tuesday, a number of hours after the Nigerian authorities filed cybercrimes expenses towards him, Fb and X earlier over the contensious social media put up towards Mr Tinubu.
The SSS had earlier written separate letters to the mother or father firms of the social media platforms, asking them to delete the posts and activate Mr Sowore’s accounts or face penalties.
The Nigerian secret police additionally wrote to Mr Sowore, equally asking him to delete the posts.
Whereas Mr Sowore publicly rebuffed the request to delete the put up, Fb and X have but to make a public touch upon the request or act on the Nigerian authorities’s request but.
Sowore’s prayers
In his swimsuit, Mr Sowore seeks a number of declarations and orders, together with stopping the social media platfoms from deleting his posts.
He asks the court docket to declare that the SSS’s request for the elimination of his 26 August put up — through which he described President Bola Tinubu as a “felony” — violates his proper to freedom of expression beneath Part 39 of the 1999 Structure and Article 9 of the African Constitution on Human and Peoples’ Rights.
He additionally contends that branding his put up “unlawful” with out listening to him breached his proper to honest listening to beneath Part 36(1).
He additionally urges to the court docket to declare name by the SSS on the social media platforms to deactivate his account infringed on his freedom of affiliation beneath Part 40.
Mr Sowore additional prays for injunctions restraining the SSS and its director-general from transmitting censorship requests to Meta or interfering together with his Fb account.
He seeks an order compelling the withdrawal of all prior censorship communications and restraining Meta from performing on such requests.
In a press release on Tuesday, his lawyer, Mr Temokun, described SSS’ letters to Fb and X as an try at censorship, which he described as “an assault on free speech”.
Mr Temokun warned that if state companies dictate to international platforms “who might communicate and what could also be mentioned, then no Nigerian is secure.”
Nigerian govt responds with felony expenses
Barely days after Mr Sowore’s swimsuit was filed, the federal authorities by way of the Director of Public Prosecutions on the Federal Ministry of Justice, Mohammed Abubakar, lodged 5 counts of cybercrimes and defamation of Mr Tinubu towards Mr Sowore on Tuesday. The federal government filed the fees earlier than the Federal Excessive Court docket in Abuja.
In accordance with court docket paperwork obtained by this newspaper, the fees stemmed from Mr Sowore’s August 25 and 26 posts on Fb and X, through which he accused President Tinubu of mendacity about preventing corruption throughout a state go to to Brazil and described him as a “felony”.
The prosecution alleged that Mr Sowore knowingly unfold false data able to inflicting public dysfunction, opposite to Part 24(1)(b) of the Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention, and so forth.) Modification Act, 2024.
Two of the counts are cybercrime-related, whereas three accuse him of defamation and publishing false statements prone to incite concern and disturb public peace beneath the Prison Code Act.
Though Fb and X have been listed as co-defendants, not one of the expenses straight accuses the platforms of committing offences.
The costs haven’t but been assigned to a decide, and no date has been fastened for Mr Sowore’s arraignment.
READ ALSO: UPDATED: Nigerian govt expenses Sowore, Fb, X with cybercrimes, defamation over anti-Tinubu posts
SSS pressures on social media platforms
The felony case adopted SSS correspondences to Fb and X demanding deletion of Mr Sowore’s posts and deactivation of his accounts, threatening penalties for non-compliance.
The company additionally issued direct warnings to Mr Sowore.
However Mr Sowore rejected the directive in letters to each platforms, accusing the SSS of harassment and insisting he wouldn’t retract his statements, which he described as a part of his constitutional responsibility to carry leaders accountable.
Mr Sowore was earlier arrested by the SSS in 2019 after launching the #RevolutionNow protests.
He was later charged with treasonable felony and different offences. Regardless of a number of court docket orders granting him bail, the SSS saved him in detention for months and re-arrested him inside a courtroom in December 2019, an incident that drew international outrage.
Since then, the activist has confronted surveillance, journey restrictions, and repeated authorized battles tied to his criticism of political leaders.
Human rights teams together with Amnesty Worldwide and the Committee to Shield Journalists (CPJ) have described his therapy as a part of efforts to silence dissent.
This isn’t the primary time the Nigerian authorities would transfer towards a social media platform.
On 5 June 2021, the Nigerian authorities banned X, then often called Twitter, after the platform took down a put up by then President Muhammadu Buhari thought-about to be a menace to the individuals of South-east. The ban was not lifted till 13 January 2022.
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