The Department of State Services (DSS) has written to Meta, the parent company of Facebook, demanding the urgent deactivation of activist Omoyele Sowore’s account, accusing him of spreading falsehoods capable of inciting violence and endangering Nigeria’s national security.
In a letter dated September 7, 2025, addressed to Mark Zuckerberg, Chairman and CEO of Meta, the DSS said Sowore used his Facebook page to publish “misleading information” aimed at disparaging President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and destabilising the country.
Sowore himself shared the content of the letter on his verified X handle today, drawing widespread reactions online.
The correspondence, signed by Uwem Davies, fsi, for the Director General of State Services, comes just two days after the agency made a similar request to X (formerly Twitter).
“We detected and monitored with dismay and consternation a widely circulated publication by Omoyele Sowore on his Facebook page ‘Omoyele Sowore’ on 26th August, 2025, disparaging and ridiculing the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria,” the DSS wrote. The agency quoted the activist’s post in which he referred to the president as a “criminal” for declaring in Brazil that corruption no longer existed under his administration.
According to the letter, the post “is still in circulation and has attracted widespread condemnation by majority of Nigerians, and is causing both online and offline tension across the country, thereby creating political tension and threatening the country’s national security.”
The DSS insisted that Sowore’s statement had “crossed the boundaries of decency and acceptable behaviour,” describing it as “an extremely dangerous and false privacy violation that manipulates and negatively impacts on the person of the President and the Country.”
Citing several Nigerian laws, including the Criminal Code Act, the Cyber Crimes Act 2025, and the Terrorism (Prevention and Prohibition) Act 2022, the DSS argued that Sowore’s words amounted to “online harassment and abuse” as well as “hate speech” with the intent to cause disunity and damage Nigeria’s image internationally.
“It is against the above highlighted backdrop that we make an immediate and urgent demand on your corporation, to as a matter of its own policy, immediately TAKE DOWN the post and its attendant shares,” the letter read. “This demand is unequivocal with its attendant consequence. Should you fail, neglect and refuse to comply with the command in this notice, the Federal Government will be compelled to take far-reaching, sweeping and across-the-board measures through our organisation, whose mandate covers such criminal acts.”
The DSS gave Meta 24 hours to comply with the request, warning that failure to act would trigger unspecified consequences.
The agency’s tough posture mirrors its earlier letter to X on September 5, where it also demanded Sowore’s account be suspended for allegedly spreading “false and inciting statements” against the president.
