A Federal High Court in Abuja has barred politician and online publisher Omoyele Sowore from making further statements that are detrimental to the country’s peace and security.

In a ruling yesterday, Justice Mohammed Umar threatened to revoke the bail granted Sowore should he ever make statements that could jeopardise the nation’s peace and security..

In granting Sowore bail, Justice Umar held that he provided sufficient evidence, which enabled the court to exercise its discretion in granting him bail on self-recognition.

Justice Umar said there was evidence that Sowore was once a presidential candidate in the country, and he had been earlier granted bail. Additionally, his international passport was being held by the court as part of the conditions attached to the bail granted him in another case.

The ruling was on a bail application argued by his lawyer, Marshall Abubakar, shortly after Sowore was arraigned on a five-count charge, in which he is accused of defaming President Bola Tinubu by referring to him as a criminal in his posts on X and Facebook.

When the charge, being prosecuted by the Department of State Services (DSS), was read to him, Sowore pleaded not guilty.

In the charge, Sowore, the presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC) in 2019, is accused of contravening the provisions of the Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention, etc) Amendment Act, 2024 and the Criminal Code Act by calling President Bola Tinubu a criminal.

The two other defendants listed in the charge, marked: FHC/ABJ/CR/484/2025, are X Incorp (formerly Twitter) and Meta (Facebook) Incorp.

Earlier at the commencement of proceedings, lawyer to the prosecution, Akinlolu Kehinde (SAN) informed the court that the business of the day was for the arraignment of the first defendant, who was already in the dock.

However, Abubakar made frantic efforts to prevent his client’s arraignment and informed the court about a notice of preliminary objection filed the previous day by his client, challenging the court’s jurisdiction to hear the charge.

Source; The Nation News