Sowore to DSS: Only Tinubu can call me to order

Human rights activist and former presidential candidate Omoyele Sowore has publicly refused a demand from the Department of State Services (DSS) to retract social media posts critical of President Bola Tinubu, asserting that the secret police has no legal standing to act on the President’s behalf.

The response comes after the DSS delivered a letter to his lawyer’s office, demanding the deletion of a “criminal, false, and malicious” post on X and Facebook against the President.

In his lengthy reply addressed to DSS DG Uwem Davies, Sowore did not remove the posts in question. Instead, he mounted a sharp constitutional and historical defense of his actions, framing the DSS’s demand as a continuation of what he describes as the agency’s long history of “unlawful repression.”

“The determination of the Nigerian people to reclaim their country from thieves in power is unwavering. And it shall be achieved,” Sowore wrote, concluding with the activist slogan: “Aluta continua, victoria ascerta” (The struggle continues, victory is certain).

However, Sowore’s response contained a critical legal nuance that signals a potential off-ramp. He cited a 2021 court judgment against a group that tried to sue on behalf of former Attorney General Abubakar Malami, noting that defamation is a “personal tort.”

“The AGF should have gone to court himself if he felt defamed,” Sowore wrote, quoting the past ruling. “It is elementary that only the person defamed can sue. Therefore, your attempt to demand a retraction is an incompetent and unlawful attempt to hold the President’s brief.”

This argument culminates in a pointed challenge, effectively encapsulated in his new headline: only President Tinubu himself has the standing to formally complain.

The letter also serves as a personal indictment of the DSS, recounting Sowore’s own history with the agency—including his detentions in 1993, 1996, and a highly publicized 2019 arrest where DSS agents stormed a Federal High Court to re-arrest him.

As of publication, the DSS has not issued a public response to Sowore’s letter. The ball now appears to be in the court of the Presidency to either ignore the matter, direct the DSS to stand down, or pursue legal action directly.