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Amnesty Slams DSS Over Pressure on X to Delete Sowore’s Anti-Tinubu Post
Amnesty International has accused Nigeria’s Department of State Services (DSS) of attempting to muzzle free speech after the agency formally demanded that X Corp, owned by Elon Musk, deactivate the account of activist Omoyele Sowore for criticising President Bola Tinubu.
The DSS letter, dated September 6, 2025, and signed by senior official B. Bamigboye on behalf of the Director-General, was addressed to X Corp’s headquarters in Texas. It alleged that Sowore was spreading “misleading information and willful intention to further an ideology capable of incitement to violence, cybercrime, hate speech, and disparagement of the President.”
The security service specifically cited a post by Sowore on August 25, in which he described Tinubu as a “criminal” and accused him of lying during a trip to Brazil. The DSS said the post ridiculed the presidency and constituted a “serious threat to national security.”
Amnesty, in a counter-statement released Sunday, blasted the move as a blatant violation of rights. “The DSS targeting of Sowore’s X account is being done without any legal justification under international human rights law. It represents a violation of Nigeria’s obligations under the Constitution, the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights,” Amnesty declared.
Sowore Fires Back
Reacting via a Facebook post, Sowore dismissed the DSS demand as “a national disgrace” and “an assault on institutions and common sense.” He accused the Tinubu government of persecuting him under various guises, from arrests and travel restrictions to allegations of terrorism financing.
“To export this disgrace to Twitter in the US shows how far Nigeria has sunk into the hands of its most incompetent and dysfunctional citizens,” Sowore wrote. He vowed that “the struggle against these criminals continues ceaselessly with or without a Twitter account.”
History of Clashes
This is not the first time Sowore has clashed with Nigeria’s security agencies. Under former President Muhammadu Buhari, he was arrested in August 2019 over the #RevolutionNow protests, detained for months, and banned from international travel despite multiple court rulings in his favour. The Tinubu administration discontinued the treason case in 2023, but Sowore maintains that he remains under constant surveillance.
Free Speech Under Threat
Amnesty International urged X not to comply with the DSS demand. “X must not yield to censorship demands of the Nigerian government, through targeting the voices of activists, and must do all in its power to protect freedom of expression on its platform,” it said.
The development has drawn sharp debate among civil society groups, who warn that moves to police social media content could deepen Nigeria’s democratic backslide and worsen human rights abuses.
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