Mr Sowore pleaded not guilty to the cyberbullying charges on Monday.
The federal government has rearraigned Omoyele Sowore, publisher of Sahara Reporters, on cybercrime scharges over his posts on X (formerly Twitter) and Facebook describing President Bola Tinubu as a "criminal."
He was rearraigned on Monday before trial judge Mohammed Umar of the Federal High Court in Abuja.
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The rearraignment followed the amendment to the charge, which initially had Meta (parent company of Facebook) and X Inc. (parent company of X) as co-defendants.
The amendment saw both tech companies removed from the cyberbullyintheg charges as co-defendants and reduction of number of counts from five to two.
It left Mr Sowore as the sole defendant.
After the new charges were read to the human rights activist, Mr Sowore Monday, he pleaded not guilty.
In September 2025, the State Security Services (SSS) filed five counts against Mr Sowore and the tech companies over Mr Sowore's posts published on X, and Facebook on 25 and 26 August 2025. The posts described President Bola Tinubu as a "criminal" and accused him of lying about corruption.
The SSS wrote to X, Facebook and Mr Sowore to delete the posts or face consequences, with the government maintaining that the posts were false, capable of causing public disorder, and damaging the president's reputation. But the demand for the removal of the posts was rebuffed, prompting the SSS to charge the trio with cybercrime.
Before the arraignment, the court stalled proceedings twice. On one occasion, the matter could not proceed because Sowore was absent and his lawyers did not appear.
The prosecution asked the court to issue a bench warrant for his arrest, but the trial judge declined and instead adjourned the arraignment.
The SSS eventually arrainged Sowore alongside Facebook and X on 2 December 2025. They pleaded not guilty to the five counts. Although the prosecution opposed Mr Sowore's bail application, arguing that he had a history of committing further offences while on bail, the court granted him bail on his own recognisance.
The removal of the names of the social media giants from the charges was not surprising, with a PREMIUM TIMES review showing in the wake of the filing of the case in September last year that none of the five counts accused the tech companies of any offence.
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The PREMIUM TIMES review showed that all the allegations in each of the five counts were directed at Mr Sowore, who was accused by the prosecution of posting messages and publishing materials via his Facebook and X accounts to defame Mr Tinubu and cause fear and disturbance in Nigeria.
But none of the five counts disclosed any offence committed by Facebook's and X's parent companies, although they were listed as the second and third defendants alongside Mr Sowore, who was the first defendant.
The absence of any allegations against Facebook or X in the charges left the platforms technically with nothing to defend in the case.
