Non-service of charge sheet on Tuesday stalled the arraignment of former Presidential aspirant, Omoyele Sowore, X Incorporation (formerly Twitter), and Meta (Facebook) Incorporation before a Federal High Court in Abuja over an alleged false claim against the person of President Bola Tinubu by tagging him “a criminal.”
The Federal Government had earlier slated Tuesday, September 30, to arraign Sowore and his co-defendants on a five-count charge before Justice Mohammed Umar, but when the case was called for the arraignment, counsel for Sowore, Abubakar Marshall, objected on the ground that his client was not served with the charge sheet three days before the arraignment as required by law.
Similarly, he said, the second defendant had also not been served, and since the trial is on a joint charge, the arraignment cannot be held.
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Lead counsel to the federal government, Mohammed Babadoko Abubakar, who is the Director of the Public Prosecution of the Federation (DPPF), debunked the allegation of non-service of the charge and insisted that Sowore had been served.
At this point, the trial judge consulted with the case file and found that Sowore had not been served with the charge sheet, and the DPPF subsequently applied for an order to serve Sowore in the open court, a request the court granted.
Sowore, who personally accepted the service in the open court, prayed through his counsel, Marshall, for an adjournment to enable the defendants to study the charge sheet before taking their plea.
Following a no objection to the request for adjournment, the court shifted the arraignment of the former Presidential aspirant and his codefendants to October 27, 2025.
At Tuesday’s proceedings, Professor Tayo Oyetibo, SAN, represented the third defendant, Metal. Incorporation, while the second defendant, X., was not represented.
The five-count charge marked FHC/ABJ/CR/484/2025 was filed on behalf of the Federal Republic of Nigeria by the DSS on September 16, a few days after the DSS requested Facebook and X to pull down Sowore’s offending post.
In the charge, Sowore, who contested the 2019 and 2023 presidential elections on the platform of African Action Congress (AAC), is accused of contravening the provisions of the Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention, etc) Amendment Act, 2024, and the Criminal Code Act.
Counts in the charge read: “That you, Omoyele Sowore, adult, male on or about the 25th day of August, 2025, did use your official X handle page, @Yele Sowore, to send out a message/ tweet as: ‘This criminal @officialPBAT actually went to Brazil to state that there is no more corruption under his regime in Nigeria. What audacity to lie shamelessly,’ which you know the said message to be false but posted it for the purpose of causing a breakdown of law and order in the country, especially among individuals, who hold divergent views on the personality of the President and Commander inChief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Bola Ahmed Tinubu (GCFR) and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 24 (1) (b) of the Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention, etc) Amendment Act, 2024.
“That you, Omoyele Sowore, adult male on or about the 26th day of August, 2025, did use your official Facebook page, Omoyele Sowore, to send out a message/ post as: ‘This criminal @officialPBAT actually went to Brazil to state that there is no more corruption under his regime in Nigeria. What audacity to lie shamelessly,’ which you know the said message/post to be false, but posted it for the purpose of causing a breakdown of law and order in the country, especially among individuals who hold divergent views on the personality of the President and Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Bola Ahmed Tinubu and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 24 (1) (b) of the Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention, etc) Amendment Act, 2024.
“That you, Omoyele Sowore, adult, male on or about the 25th day of August, 2025, using the instrumentality of X, via your official X account @Yele Sowore, did knowingly publish defamatory material on your online platform viz: ‘This criminal @officialPBAT actually went to Brazil to state that there is no more corruption under his regime in Nigeria. What audacity to lie shamelessly, against the personality and reputation of the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 375 of the Criminal Code Act.
“That you, Omoyele Sowore, adult, male on or about the 26th day of August, 2025, using the instrumentality of Facebook, via your official Facebook account Omoyele Sowore, did knowingly publish defamatory material on your online platform viz: ‘This criminal @officialPBAT actually went to Brazil to state that there is no more corruption under his regime in Nigeria. What audacity to lie shamelessly, against the personality and reputation of the President and Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 375 of the Criminal Code Act.
“That you, Omoyele Sowore, adult, male on or about the 26th day of August, 2025 with intent to cause public fear and disturbance, published false information on your official X and Facebook accounts @Yele Sowore, respectively, against the personality and reputation of the President and Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Bola Ahmed Tinubu and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 59 of the Criminal Code Act and punishable under the same Act”.
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