Human rights activist and publisher, Omoyele Sowore has confirmed being contacted by X Corp over petition by the Department of State Services (DSS) against his post on President Bola Tinubu.
The DSS had in its petition to the Chairman and CEO X Corp on Saturday, specifically cited post @YeleSowore on 25th August, 2025 about 11:38 PM local time (2338 hours) WAT disparaging and ridiculing the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
In the petition dated 6th September, 2025, the DSS further cited the implications of the said post and its potential consequential effects on the person of President Bola Tinubu and Nigeria as a whole on the comity of nations.
‘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 tweet and its attendant re-tweets”, DSS stressed.
Sowore however, vowed not to take down the post but indicated exploring other options available to him.
According to Sowore, “This morning, X (formerly Twitter) officially contacted me about the despicable threat letter they received from the lawless DSS over my Tweet on Tinubu. One option I will NOT be taking is deleting that Tweet. Thank you, @X”, Sowore wrote on his X handle @YeleSowore.
The details of the X Corp contact with Sowore reads:
Hello @YeleSowore,
In the interest of transparency, we are writing to inform you that X has received a request from Department of State Services regarding your X account, @YeleSowore, that claims the following content violates the law(s) of Nigeria.
@YeleSowore
We have not taken any action on the reported content at this time as a result of this request.
As X strongly believes in defending and respecting the voice of our users, it is our policy to notify our users if we receive a legal request from an authorized entity (such as law enforcement or a government agency) to remove content from their account. We provide notice whether or not the user lives in the country where the request originated. This page provides more information:
help.x.com/en/rules-and-p…
We understand that receiving this type of notice can be an unsettling experience. While X is not able to provide legal advice, we want you to have an opportunity to evaluate the request and, if you wish, take appropriate action to protect your interests.
This may include seeking legal counsel and challenging the request in court, contacting relevant civil society organizations, voluntarily deleting the content (if applicable), or finding some other resolution. For more information on legal requests X receives from governments worldwide, please refer to this article on our Help Center and our biannual Transparency Report:
help.x.com/en/rules-and-p…
transparency.x.com
Sincerely,
X
