The Federal High Court has fixed October 2 for the presidential candidate of the African Action Congress, AAC), Omoyele Sowore, to continue his defence in the alleged cyberbullying case brought against him by the Department of State Services (DSS).
There were social media reports last month that the DSS would, upon the resumption of court proceedings after its annual long vacation, seek an extended adjournment to enable Sowore to concentrate on his presidential campaign.
Sowore is being prosecuted over his August 2025 posts on X (formerly Twitter) and Facebook, in which he described President Bola Tinubu as a “criminal” and accused him of lying about the level of corruption in the country.
At the conclusion of the prosecution’s case, Sowore made a no-case submission, which the court rejected and ordered him to enter his defence.
He also lost his bid to have the trial judge recuse himself from the case after his allegation of bias was rejected by the court’s Chief Judge.
At Monday’s hearing, prosecuting counsel, Akinlolu Kehinde (SAN), told the court that the case was fixed for September 28 for Sowore to continue his defence.
Defence counsel, Adeyinka Olumide-Fusika (SAN), said the defendant was expecting a subpoenaed witness from the DSS but that the defence might be unable to proceed without the witness.
Olumide-Fusika recalled that on the last adjourned date, the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), had reached an understanding with the defence that another officer of the DSS would be sent to represent the agency’s Director-General, who was originally subpoenaed.
He said that since nobody came from the DSS to represent its Director-General, the defence would have no option but to apply for an adjournment.
The defence counsel said that since the witness had been subpoenaed and was not in court, the defence had the option of applying for a warrant for the witness to be arrested and produced in court.
Olumide-Fusika also tendered some newspaper publications in which the DSS was reported to have promised to instruct its counsel to seek the suspension of proceedings in the case until after the next general elections.
The defence counsel said he had expected the prosecution to apply for an extended adjournment at the resumption of proceedings on Monday, as reported in the media.
When asked by the judge, Justice Mohammed Umar, why no official of the DSS was in court in view of the understanding with the AGF, Kehinde said it was not his responsibility to produce a witness for the defence, arguing that it was the defence’s responsibility to ensure that its witness was in court.
Kehinde also faulted Olumide-Fusika’s decision to rely on social media publications in the conduct of his case. He denied knowledge of such publications and urged the court to discountenance them.
He urged the court to order the defendant to proceed with his defence, failing which he would be forced to apply for the defence to be foreclosed.
In his ruling, Justice Umar said that since the subpoenaed witness was not available, he would give the defence another opportunity to produce the witness.
He adjourned the case until October 2 for the continuation of the defence.
Court fixes October 2 for Sowore to continue defence in alleged cyberbullying of Tinubu