A Federal High Court in Abuja has fixed January 22 for the commencement of trial in the cyber-bullying case brought against the presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC) in the 2023 Omoyele Sowore by the Department of State Services (DSS).
Justice Mohammed Umar chose the date shortly after Sowore was re-arraigned on a two-count amended charge. In the amended charge filed by the Sowore is accused of making a false claim against the person of Present Bola Tinubu by referring to him as a criminal in a post he made on his X and Facebook accounts.
The defendant is accused of contravening the provisions of the Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention, etc) Amendment Act, 2024.
In the amended charge, Sowore is listed as the sole defendant.
At the commencement of proceedings on Monday, prosecuting lawyer, Akinlolu Kehinde (SAN), applied to withdraw the earlier charge, which had three defendants – Sowore, X Incorp (formerly Twitter), and Meta (Facebook) Incorp.
Kehinde prayed the court to strike out the charge and the names of X Incorp (formerly Twitter) and Meta (Facebook) Incorp as defendants in the case, a request Justice Mohammed Umar granted and struck out the charge and the names of the other two defendants.
When the first count of the amended charge was read to Sowore by an official of the court, he initially claimed not to understand the count, but later changed his mind after a brief consultation with his lawyer, Marshall Abubakar.
Sowore proceeded to plead not guilty to the two counts on the amended charge.
Further proceedings were, however, stalled when Abubakar objected to the move by Kehinde to call the first prosecution witness.
Abubakar argued that the prosecution has not provided the defendant with sufficient materials to enable him to prepare for his defence.
He cited Section 36(6) of the Constitution and Section 379(1) of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA). He said his client was entitled to be served with the names of the prosecution’s witnesses, a summary of their testimony, among others.
Although Kehinde faulted Abubakar’s arguments, insisting that the prosecution had done all that was required of it, Justice Umar directed him to provide the defendant with summaries of what his witnesses were coming to say during the trial.
The amended charge reads:
*That you, Omoyele Sowore, adult, male, on or about the 25th day of August, 2025 did knowingly or intentionally send a message by means of a computer system or network, to wit: your official “X” (formerly Twitter) handle page, @YeleSowore, wherein you posted the following message/tweet: “This criminal GofficialABAT actually went to Brazil to state that there Is NO MORE corruption under his regime In Nigeria. What audacity to lie shamelessly!” which message you knew fo be false and posted for the purpose of causing a breakdown of law and order in Nigeria, posing a threat to life or causing such message to be sent and thereby committed the offence of cyberstalking contrary to Section 24(1) (b) and 24(2) (a),(b) and (c) of the Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention, Etc.) (Amendment) Act, 2024, and punishable under the same section.
*That you, Omoyele Sowore, adult, male, on or about the 25th day of August, 2025 did knowingly or intentionally send a message by means of a computer system or network, to wit: your official Facebook handle page, @YeleSowore, wherein you posted the following message/post: “This criminal @officialABAT actually went to Brazil to state that there is NO MORE corruption under his regime in Nigeria. What audacity of shamelessly!” which message you knew to be false and posted for the purpose of causing a breakdown of law and order in Nigeria, posing a threat to life, or causing such message to be sent and thereby committed the offence of cyberstalking contrary to Section 24(1)(b) and 24(2) (a), (b), and (c) of the Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention, etc.) (Amendment) Act, 2024 and punishable under the same section.
Source; The Nation News