The court has fixed October 27 for Sowore’s arraignment over an alleged cybercrime.
Glamtush reports that Justice Mohammed Umar of the Federal High Court Abuja, has fixed October 27, for the arraignment of a human rights activist, Omoyele Sowore.
This news platform understands that the scheduled arraignment on Tuesday was stalled as a result of non-service of the five-count charge of alleged cybercrime on him.
At the day’s proceeding, the Director of Public Prosecution from the Ministry of Justice told the court that they were ready to arraign Sowore, X Corporation, and Meta (Facebook) Inc., as first to third respondents, respectively.
Sowore’s counsel, Marshal Abubakar, however, told the court that they had not been served the charges.
The counsel for the third respondent also aligned himself with Abubakar’s submission, noting that he had just served in court.
The second defendant was not represented.
The activist was accused of using his official X handle to make an offensive post.
The alleged offending post was said to have been made on August 25 within the jurisdiction of the Federal High Court.
It was also said to be contrary to Section 24(2) (b) of the Cybercrimes Prohibition and Prevention Act 2024.
Recall that the Department of State Services (DSS) had filed a five-count charge at the Federal High Court, Abuja, against Sowore, the 2023 presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC).
A Director of Public Prosecutions at the Federal Ministry of Justice, Muhammed Abubakar, as well as other lawyers for the DSS, filed the charges on behalf of the agency and the Nigerian government.
The DSS had, on September 8, handed Sowore a one-week ultimatum to delete what it described as a ‘false, malicious, and inciting’ social media post about President Bola Tinubu.
The ultimatum expired on September 15 without Sowore deleting the posts on the president.
Also, the activist filed two fundamental rights actions at the Federal High Court, Abuja, against the DSS, and social media giants Meta (Facebook) and X Corp.
According to a statement released by his legal team and signed by Tope Temokun, the lawsuits were filed to challenge what the lawyers described as ‘unconstitutional censorship’ against Sowore’s accounts maintained with Meta and X.
Temokun said that the lawsuit stated categorically that it was about the survival of free speech in Nigeria.
He added that “if state agencies can dictate to global platforms who may speak and what may be said, then no Nigerian is safe; their voices will be silenced at the whims of those in power.”
