{"id":1281,"date":"2026-06-05T15:53:49","date_gmt":"2026-06-05T15:53:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/facthubafrica.com\/?p=1281"},"modified":"2026-06-05T15:53:49","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T15:53:49","slug":"sowore-refuses-to-open-defence-in-cyberbullying-trial-seeks-judges-recusal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/facthubafrica.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/05\/sowore-refuses-to-open-defence-in-cyberbullying-trial-seeks-judges-recusal\/","title":{"rendered":"Sowore Refuses to Open Defence in Cyberbullying Trial, Seeks Judge\u2019s Recusal"},"content":{"rendered":"

Human rights activist and publisher of Sahara Reporters, Omoyele Sowore, on Friday declined to open his defence in an ongoing cyberbullying trial in which he is accused of making derogatory remarks about President Bola Tinubu on social media.<\/strong><\/p>\n

When the case resumed before Justice Mohammed Umar of the Federal High Court, prosecution counsel Akinlolu Kehinde (SAN) told the court that it was the defence\u2019s turn to present its case. However, Sowore appeared without his legal team.<\/p>\n

Sowore informed the court that his lawyers were absent due to what he described as repeated dissatisfaction with the conduct of proceedings, adding that he would temporarily represent himself while seeking new counsel.<\/p>\n

During the session, the activist also filed an application requesting that Justice Umar withdraw from the case, arguing that there were concerns about fairness in the trial process. He asked that the case file be reassigned to another judge by the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court.<\/p>\n

The prosecution opposed the application, describing it as an attempt to delay proceedings and urging the court to dismiss it. The defence, however, requested more time to properly review the case file and secure legal representation.<\/p>\n

After listening to arguments from both sides, Justice Umar said he would need time to consider the application before making a ruling. The judge subsequently adjourned the matter to June 15, 2026, for a decision on whether he would continue presiding over the case.<\/p>\n

The court also noted that if the application is found to have merit, the judge would step aside from the trial.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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Human rights activist and publisher of Sahara Reporters, Omoyele Sowore, on Friday declined to open his defence in<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1282,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[241],"class_list":["post-1281","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-inside-nigeria","tag-omoyele-sowore"],"aioseo_notices":[],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/facthubafrica.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Sowore-and-Tinubu-1.jpg",750,421,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/facthubafrica.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Sowore-and-Tinubu-1-300x300.jpg",300,300,true],"medium":["https:\/\/facthubafrica.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Sowore-and-Tinubu-1-300x168.jpg",300,168,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/facthubafrica.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Sowore-and-Tinubu-1.jpg",640,359,false],"large":["https:\/\/facthubafrica.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Sowore-and-Tinubu-1.jpg",640,359,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/facthubafrica.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Sowore-and-Tinubu-1.jpg",750,421,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/facthubafrica.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Sowore-and-Tinubu-1.jpg",750,421,false],"morenews-large":["https:\/\/facthubafrica.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Sowore-and-Tinubu-1.jpg",750,421,false],"morenews-medium":["https:\/\/facthubafrica.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Sowore-and-Tinubu-1-590x410.jpg",590,410,true]},"author_info":{"info":["Publisher"]},"category_info":"Inside Nigeria<\/a>","tag_info":"Inside Nigeria","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/facthubafrica.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1281","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/facthubafrica.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/facthubafrica.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/facthubafrica.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/facthubafrica.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1281"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/facthubafrica.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1281\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1284,"href":"https:\/\/facthubafrica.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1281\/revisions\/1284"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/facthubafrica.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/facthubafrica.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/facthubafrica.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/facthubafrica.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}