The State Security Service has written to owner of X (formerly Twitter), Elon Musk, demanding the deactivation of the account of activist and publisher of Sahara Reporters, Omoyele Sowore, over posts critical of President Bola Tinubu.

In a letter sighted by Peoples Gazette, dated September 6, 2025, and addressed to the Chairman and CEO X Corp., Bastrop County, Texas, the SSS accused Mr Sowore of spreading “misleading information and willful intention to further an ideology capable of serious harm, incitement to violence, cybercrime, hate speech, and disparagement of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”

Signed by B. Bamigboye for the Director General of the SSS, the two-page document specifically cited a post Mr Sowore published on August 25, 2025, in which he described Mr Tinubu as a “criminal” and accused the president of lying during a trip to Brazil.

“This criminal @officialABAT actually went to Brazil to state that there is no more corruption under his regime in Nigeria. What audacity to lie shamelessly!” Mr Sowore had posted.

The SSS insisted that the post ridiculed the president and posed a “serious threat to national security,” demanding that Mr Musk ensure the “immediate and urgent ban/deactivation” of Mr Sowore’s verified handle, @YeleSowore, and any other account linked to him within 24 hours. Failure to comply, the agency warned, would compel the Nigerian government “to take far-reaching, sweeping and across-the-board measures” against X.

Responding via a Facebook post on Sunday, Mr Sowore dismissed the SSS demand as “a national disgrace” and “an assault on institutions and common sense.”

“It came as no surprise to discover a ridiculously crafted letter from the DSS to X (formerly Twitter), demanding that my Twitter account be deactivated within 24 hours,” Mr Sowore wrote. “The brazenness of this is not only unconstitutional…but a desecration of national dignity.”

He accused the Tinubu administration of hiding behind the Nigeria Police Force and other security agencies to persecute him, citing his arrest, restricted international travels, and a recent court declaration that he was engaged in “terrorism financing.”

“To export this disgrace to Twitter in the US shows how far Nigeria has sunk into the hands of its most incompetent and dysfunctional citizens,” he added, vowing that “the struggle against these criminals continues ceaselessly with or without a Twitter account.”

This is not the first time Mr Sowore and the SSS would clash. Under former President Muhammadu Buhari, the agency arrested the activist on August 3, 2019, over a planned #RevolutionNow protests held two days after — August 5, 2019. He was detained for several months, denied bail, and barred from leaving Nigeria despite multiple court rulings in his favour.

The Buhari government, through the then Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, charged Mr Sowore with treason and other offences before a Federal High Court in Abuja.

The Tinubu administration in 2023 formally discontinued the case. The Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi, entered a nolle prosequi in 2023, ending the trial and allowing Mr Sowore to regain freedom of movement within Nigeria—although security agencies continued to monitor him.