DSS gives X.com 24 hours to pull down Sowore’s anti-Tinubu tweet

The federal government has issued a 24-hour ultimatum to X.com, demanding the removal of a tweet by Omoyele Sowore, a politician and activist, which criticised President Bola Tinubu over his comment in Brazil that corruption has ended under his administration.

Sowore’s tweet reads: “This criminal @officialABAT actually went to Brazil to state that there is NO MORE corruption under his regime in Nigeria. What audacity to lie shamelessly!”

In a letter addressed to the chairman and chief executive officer of X.com in Bastrop County, Texas, the government described the tweet as misleading and intended to incite violence, encourage cybercrime and hate speech, and discredit Tinubu.

The letter, signed by B. Bamigboye on behalf of the director-general of the Department of State Services (DSS), said the publication could cause a threat to national security, create tension, and ridicule Nigeria in the international community.

According to the letter dated September 6, 2025, the tweet violates Section 51 of the Criminal Code Act Cap 77, which prohibits the publication of false information.

It also cited sections 19, 22, and 24 of the Cyber Crime Act 2025, which make it an offence to spread fake news or publish misleading, offensive, or vulgar content intended to humiliate others or provoke ethnic and tribal hatred.

The DSS further said Sowore’s post contravenes Section 2 of the Terrorism Prevention and Prohibition Act 2022.

“It is not in doubt that the words employed by Mr. Omoyele Sowore is misleading information, online harassment and abuse willful intention of furthering and ideology, capable of serious harm, hate speech, causing disunity, discredit the President of Nigeria in the comity of Nations to damage the image of Nigeria and cause threat to National Security of the Country,” the letter read.

The DSS insisted that both Sowore and the platform are criminally liable.

“The author and purveyor of the inflammatory online publication against the president is very much aware that the publication is also prohibited by Section 2 of the Terrorism Prevention and Prohibition Act, 2022 and other relevant Laws of Nigeria,” it said.

The agency directed X.com to “pull down the tweet and its attendant retweet”, warning that failure to comply would attract “far-reaching, sweeping and across-the-board measures”.

“This demand is unequivocal, with its attendant consequences. Should you fail. neglect and refuse to comply with the command in this notice, the Federal Government of Nigeria will be compelled to take far-reaching sweeping and across-the-board measures through our organisation, whose mandate cover such criminal acts.

“In the light of the above. having been make official to you, 24 hours is sufficient enough to take necessary action,” it added.

As of the time of filing this report, it was unclear if X.com had responded to Nigeria’s demand.