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Sowore blasts DSS over move to deactivate his X account
Human rights advocate and former presidential aspirant Omoyele Sowore has criticized the Department of State Services (DSS) for petitioning social media platform X (formerly Twitter) to suspend his verified account, calling the action “another act of national disgrace.”
In a statement released on Sunday, Sowore expressed no surprise at the DSS’s letter to X, which accused him of insulting President Bola Tinubu and demanded the deactivation of his handle @YeleSowore.
READ ALSO: DSS orders X to shut down Sowore’s account over Tinubu “criminal” remark
“This morning I woke up to yet another act of national disgrace, an assault on institutions, and on common sense,” Sowore said. “It came as no surprise to discover a ridiculously crafted letter from the DSS to X, demanding that my account be deactivated within 24 hours.”
He described the move as part of ongoing state-sponsored harassment, recalling that “hired DSS protesters” recently rallied at the Federal High Court and Ministry of Justice calling for his arrest.
Sowore, who has had repeated confrontations with Nigerian security agencies, accused the Tinubu administration of employing “outlaws who operate above their own laws” to silence opposition.
He linked the DSS petition to a tweet he posted on August 25 criticizing Tinubu’s claim during a Brazil visit that corruption had ended under his government.
According to Sowore, the government has weaponized state institutions against him in a pattern of persecution, citing his placement on a no-entry list by Immigration, the seizure of his passport by a Federal High Court, multiple arrests, and “trumped-up charges” filed against him.
“They have gone so far as to falsely declare in open court that I am engaged in ‘terrorism financing,’ a shameless pretext to justify unlawful actions and prepare the public for further attacks against me in acts that include the use of state actors masquerading as non-state actors to harm me physically, this is the exact reason the DSS claims that ‘Tinubu supporters’ are angry,” he said, accusing security agencies of preparing the public for further attacks by “masquerading as non-state actors.”
“But who are these supporters, if not the leadership of the DSS, the @PoliceNG, and other security agencies that have become conscienceless and totally lost to national priority?”
He added: “To now export this disgrace to Twitter in the US shows how far Nigeria has sunk into the hands of its most incompetent and dysfunctional citizens.”
Despite the threat, Sowore vowed to persist.
“The DSS and I have been here before under the defunct Buhari regime. The same methods were deployed, force, subterfuge, and hiding behind rogue units. It all fell flat. And just as before, the leading actors will once again disappear into obscurity,” he said.
“I have asked Nigerians the most critical question before, and I ask it again: Do you want to continue being held hostage by a tiny, wicked, inhumane band of rogues?
“As for me, there is no going back. The struggle against these criminals continues ceaselessly with or without a Twitter account, with or without Facebook, and whether I am in jail or outside of it.”
“The struggle continues,” he declared.
On his X account, Sowore also shared the official notice he received from the platform confirming receipt of the DSS petition.
“X (formerly Twitter) officially contacted me about the despicable threat letter they received from the lawless DSS over my Tweet on Tinubu. One option I will NOT be taking is deleting that Tweet,” he wrote.
In its notice, X informed Sowore that although it had received a legal request from the DSS, it had not taken action on his tweet.
“As X strongly believes in defending and respecting the voice of our users, it is our policy to notify our users if we receive a legal request from an authorized entity (such as law enforcement or a government agency) to remove content from their account,” the platform said, noting that it provides such notice regardless of the user’s location.
The echoes of the drums rolled out to celebrate the rescue of the 44 teachers and students, kidnapped from some schools in Oyo State, after 56 days in the bush, would surely be disrupted abruptly, with the divergent echoes of a fresh abduction, this time coming from Kogi State.
Reports indicate that the gunmen, struck on Tuesday at the Government Secondary School, Odo-Ekina, in Dekina Local Government Area of the state, abducting four students, the school principal and a National Examinations Council (NECO) ad hoc staff member.
Authorities of the Kogi State Police Command, who immediately unleashed their operatives in hot pursuit of the abductors, said the attack occurred at about 5:25 p.m. while the students were writing their NECO examination.
Saliu Oyiza Afusat, an Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) and spokesman of the command, said a combined team of police personnel and other security agencies has launched a search-and-rescue operation following the incident.
Informing that one of the students was actually rescued immediately, she said efforts were ongoing to secure the release of the remaining victims and apprehend the attackers, adding that Naziru Bello Kankarofi, the state Commissioner of Police, alongside the Brigade Commander and the State Security Adviser to the Governor, Commodore Jerry Omodara (Rtd), were already on the way to the scene for an on-the-spot assessment.
Oil prices are expected to go down now with the announcement of Donald Trump, US President that he will no longer impose a 20 percent “safe passage” fee on ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz.
The POTUS, hinged his reversal of the decision on the intervention from some Gulf countries, who pleaded with him not to toe the line due to the massive economic impact the decision would make on the region.
Indeed, oil prices had shot up immediately Trump announced the new levy on Monday while declaring the US ‘the guardians of the Hormuz strait,’ a measure which he said was to pay for the cost of guarding the volatile area in order keep supply of oil flowing.
Reports said that Gulf allies of the US worked frantically to get Trump on the phone in time to talk him out of the idea altogether, while a flurry of appeals came from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Qatar.
In response, the POTUS, posting on his Truth Social platform, wrote: “Based on highly productive conversations with Middle East leadership, I have decided to replace the 20% United States Reimbursement Fee with Trade and Investment Deals that the various Gulf States will be making into the United States.”
Trump, who said the investments would be “MASSIVE but, at the same time, extraordinarily good for them, and their future,” added that the deals would see factories, plants, and equipment pour into the US at “Historic levels.”
The Gulf nations have committed to invest trillions of dollars in the US, though it remains unclear how much of that they will actually spend over the next several years.
Meanwhile, the US continues to bomb Iran in what appears to be a resumption of active conflict between both countries, despite an ongoing roadmap to end the conflict.
Reports say operatives of the Osun State Police Command, and those of the Department of State Services (DSS) had tracking the trail of Adeniyi Adeyemi, controversial Director General of the Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC), for weeks, before he was eventually pulled out of his hole on Tuesday.
However, the duo, were said to have pulled back after failing to track him through his mobile phones, which he had reportedly switched off for about two days, making it difficult to locate him, leaving the stage for the members of the Police Intelligence Response Team (PI-RT) led by Moses Lohor, a Chief Superintendent of Police (CSP).
Lohor, said to have previously served as the Commander of the Anti-Kidnapping Squad of Osun State, and reported to have been involved in high-profile security operations and controversies, after taken over fielded his men to pick up signals from their well-oiled signal networks.
Regarded by many Osun residents as one of the key security officers who contributed significantly to the peace and stability enjoyed in Ilesa and other parts of the state during his tenure, he was said to have relied on his contacts before his transfer out of the state, said to have raised concerns from the public about the security situation he would be leaving behind.
His exit from the state was said to be hinged on an incident in 2024, in which he allegedly shot one Iyanda Alowonle, then Chairman of Osun State Motor Transport System, in the stomach at the police station in the state prompting an order for his arrest by then Inspector General of Police (IGP).
His effort was said to have paid off when he successfully tracked down the controversial PFIPC, boss, who was seen on Tuesday evening, in a shot video on social media undergoing interrogation, and eventually handed him over to Ibrahim Gotan, Commissioner of Police in the state.
The PUNCH quoted one of the sources as saying: “The arrest (of Adeyemi) took place on Tuesday morning by the IRT squad, who immediately moved him to Abuja. After he was arrested, he was taken to Ibadan and from there to Abuja.”
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