The Federal High Court in Abuja has adjourned the arraignment of the publisher of Sahara Reporters, Omoyele Sowore, until October 27.
Justice Mohammed Umar adjourned the matter on Tuesday to afford Mr Sowore adequate facility to prepare for his defence.
Mr Sowore, the presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC) in 2019 and 2023, is facing a five-count charge.
The State Security Services on behalf of the Federal Government sued Mr Sowore, X Incorp. (formerly Twitter) and Meta (Facebook) Incorp. as 1st to 3rd defendants respectively.
The charge, marked: FHC/ABJ/CR/484/2025, was dated September 16.
Mr Sowore was alleged to have made a false claim against the person of President Bola Tinubu by referring to him as “a criminal” on his X and Facebook accounts.
When the matter was called on Tuesday, Mr Sowore was in court, as well as counsel for Meta.
However, there was no representation for X.
The SSS counsel, Mohammed Abubakar, applied that the charge be read to the defendants so they could take their plea.
But Mr Sowore’s lawyer, Marshall Abubakar, opposed the application.
The lawyer said the court bailiff had yet to effect the service of the charge on his client.
Besides, he argued that in criminal trial where three defendants are listed, the appearance of the 2nd defendant (X) is sacrosanct.
He said ‘X’ must be represented in court to ensure that all the defendants had been properly served.
From the court record, the judge confirmed that ‘X’ and Meta had been served electronically via their email addresses.
The SSS lawyer then applied that the charge be served on Sowore in the open and Justice Umar granted the request after it was not opposed by Abubakar and Mofesomo Tayo-Oyetibo, SAN, who appeared for Meta.
Mr Abubakar, however, sought an adjournment to afford the 1st defendant adequate time and opportunity to defend himself in line with Section 282(6) of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA), 2015.
Justice Umar adjourned the matter until October 27 for arraignment.
The charge was filed few days after an earlier request by the SSS for the alleged defamatory message posted by Mr Sowore to be pulled down on his Facebook and X handles.
In the charge, Mr Sowore is accused of contravening the provisions of the Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention, etc) Amendment Act, 2024.
Count one of the charge alleged that Sowore, on or about August 25, did use his official X handle page, @Yele Sowore, to send out a message/tweet.
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 message, which he 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).”
The offence is said to be contrary to Section 24 (1) (b) of the Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention, etc) Amendment Act, 2024, among other counts.
(NAN)
