The Federal Government on Thursday opened its case against activist and publisher Omoyele Sowore over the alleged cyberbullying of President Bola Tinubu, with a Department of State Services operative testifying before the Federal High Court in Abuja.
Sowore is standing trial in a suit marked FHC/ABJ/CR/484/2025 before Justice Mohammed Umar, following a post he allegedly made on social media in August 2025.
Led in evidence by the prosecution counsel, Akinlolu Kehinde (SAN), the first prosecution witness, Cyril Nosike, told the court that he is a DSS operative attached to the agency’s cyberspace monitoring centre. Nosike stated that his responsibility includes monitoring online activities 24 hours a day.
He testified that on August 26, 2025, he monitored posts allegedly made by Sowore on his X and Facebook accounts. According to the witness, one of the posts read: “This criminal @officialABAT actually went to Brazil to say that there is NO MORE corruption under his regime in Nigeria. What an audacity to lie shamelessly.”
Nosike confirmed that the handle @officialABAT belongs to President Tinubu, Nigeria’s President and Commander-in-Chief. He told the court that he downloaded the video containing the post and saved it on a flash drive, alongside a certificate of compliance.
The flash drive was admitted in evidence and marked Exhibit A, while the certificate of compliance was admitted as Exhibit B. The video was subsequently played in open court.
During the proceedings, defence counsel Marshal Abubakar objected to the prosecution’s line of questioning, describing it as leading. Justice Umar upheld the objection and directed the prosecution to ensure that the questions followed the natural flow of the witness’s testimony.
Nosike further testified that after the post was made, there were reactions from members of the public on both X and Facebook. He stated that he took screenshots of the reactions and obtained another certificate of compliance, which were admitted in evidence as Exhibits C and C1.
The witness also informed the court that he wrote official letters to the owners of X and Facebook through their email addresses, requesting that the post be taken down because it was generating tension. Screenshots of the letters were admitted in evidence as Exhibit D, while a demand for a retraction letter was marked Exhibit E.
According to him, Sowore later posted the contents of the letters on his social media accounts, which again generated reactions from Nigerians both within and outside the country. He claimed these reactions were disparaging and portrayed the DSS in a negative light. Screenshots of the reactions were admitted in evidence as Exhibit F.
A mild disagreement arose in court when the prosecution applied for Sowore’s mobile phone to be confiscated, alleging disregard for court rules. Sowore argued that it was not a crime to have his phone with him in court.
Ruling on the issue, Justice Umar ordered Sowore to hand over the phone to his defence counsel, noting that electronic gadgets were not permitted during court proceedings. “You are not allowed to use any electronic gadgets in court. For that reason, the phone should be handed to your defence counsel until proceedings are over,” Justice Umar said.
At the close of the witness’s testimony, the defence applied for an adjournment to enable it to prepare for cross-examination. The prosecution opposed the application, arguing that all the documents had been front-loaded and that the defence was not taken by surprise.
Justice Umar adjourned the case until January 27, 2026, for cross-examination and continuation of the trial. Sowore was re-arraigned on amended cyberbullying charges after the Federal Government dropped charges against Meta and X, limiting the case to allegations arising from his social media posts on President Tinubu.
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