The Department of State Services (DSS), on Tuesday, arraigned Omoyele Sowore, the publisher of Sahara Reporters, at the Federal High Court in Abuja for allegedly cyberbullying President Bola Tinubu.<\/p>\n
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Sowore, who was arraigned before Justice Mohammed Umar, pleaded not guilty.<\/p>\n
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Earlier when the matter was called for Sowore to take his plea, his lawyer, Marshal Abubakar, challenged the competency of the charge.<\/p>\n
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Abubakar argued that a preliminary objection had been served on the counsel for prosecution, Akinlolu Kehinde, SAN.<\/p>\n
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He, however, informed the court that the preliminary objections was served on the DSS lawyer few minutes before commencement of the proceedings.<\/p>\n
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He argued that hus client cannot take a plea on a charge that was incompetent.<\/p>\n
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Responding, Kehinde vehemently objected to Abubakar \u2018s submission.<\/p>\n
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The senior lawyer, who argued that the application was not ripe to be taken, said the business of the day was for Sowore\u2019s arraignment.<\/p>\n
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He said the preliminary objections filed was part of the mischief of the 1st defendant (Sowore)\u2019s lawyer to delay proceedings in the matter.<\/p>\n
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He reminded the court that so many adjournments had been granted at the instance of the 1st defendant.<\/p>\n
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Kehinde, who cited Section 396(3) of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA), 2015, to back his argument, said no application ought to be heard until Sowore\u2019s arraignment.<\/p>\n
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Lawyers who appeared for X Incorp (formerly Twitter) and Meta (Facebook) Incorp (2nd and 3rd defendants) did not opposed the application for the defendants to take their plea.<\/p>\n
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In a short ruling, Justice Umar aligned with the argument of the DSS lawyer and ordered that the arraignment should proceed.<\/p>\n
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It was gathered that the DSS, in the charge, marked: FHC\/ABJ\/CR\/484\/2025, accused Sowore to have made a false claim against the person of President Tinubu by referring to him as \u201ca criminal\u201d on his X and Facebook accounts.<\/p>\n
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The security agency then sued Sowore, the 2019 and 2023 presidential candidate of African Action Congress (AAC), as 1st defendant and joined X Incorp (formerly Twitter) and Meta (Facebook) Incorp as 2nd and 3rd defendants.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"