The Federal High Court in Abuja on Wednesday declined to issue an arrest warrant against activist and publisher, Mr. Omoyele Sowore, despite his failure to appear in court for arraignment on charges of criminal defamation.
Sowore is facing five-count defamation charges marked FHC/ABJ/CR/484/2025, filed by the Department of State Services (DSS) against him and two others.
The other two co-defendants in the suit are Meta (Facebook) Inc. and X Corporation (formerly Twitter).
The DSS alleged that Sowore, through posts made on his verified social media accounts, published false and defamatory statements against the agency and some of its senior officials, acts said to have damaged their reputation and breached national security protocols.
The DSS accused him particularly of making a false claim against the person of President Bola Tinubu by referring to him as ‘a criminal’ on his Twitter and Facebook accounts.
The charge was filed a few days after an earlier request by the DSS for the alleged defamatory message posted by Sowore on his Facebook and X handles to be taken down.
In the charge, Sowore is accused of contravening the provisions of the Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention, etc) Amendment Act, 2024.
The message is said to be, ‘This criminal @ official pbat actually went to Brazil to state that there is no more corruption under his regime in Nigeria. What audacity to lie shamelessly’!
The DSS added that the message, which Sowore knew to be false, was posted ‘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 (GCFR)’.
At the resumed proceedings on Wednesday, counsel for the DSS, Akinlolu Kehinde, urged Justice Mohammed Umar to issue a bench warrant against Sowore for being absent without justification.
Kehinde, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), noted that the defendant had been duly served with both the charges and the hearing notice from the previous adjourned date.
He described Sowore’s absence — and the lack of legal representation on his behalf — as ‘an affront to the sanctity of the court’, insisting that such conduct should attract appropriate sanctions.
He further urged the court to exercise its inherent powers to order the activist’s arrest wherever he might be found.
However, Justice Umar declined to issue the warrant, citing the submission of X Corporation (formerly Twitter) — the second defendant — which informed the court that it had not yet been served with the formal charge sheet, even though it had received a hearing notice.
In view of this, the judge directed that all parties be properly served with the necessary court documents and adjourned the matter to 2 December, 2025, for arraignment.
Earlier, counsel for X Corporation, Christabel Ndiokwelo told the court that her client had only received a hearing notice but not the substantive charges.
The DSS lawyer also drew the court’s attention to a letter from activist Deji Adeyanju, requesting an adjournment on behalf of Sowore — a move Kehinde described as an attempt to take the court for granted.
Counsel for Meta (Facebook) Inc., Tayo Oyetibo (SAN) aligned himself with the prosecution’s position, arguing that Sowore’s letter for adjournment was a distraction and that the first defendant was deliberately avoiding court proceedings.
After hearing arguments from the parties, Justice Umar fixed 2 December 2025, for the arraignment of all defendants and ordered that hearing notices and charges be duly served on each of them.
