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BREAKING: Aisha Yesufu Challenges DSS Over Sowore’s Case
Human Rights activist and member of the Nigeria Democratic Congress, NDC, Aisha Yesufu, has challenged the Department of State Services, DSS, over its role in the prosecution of activist Omoyele Sowore, questioning why the agency became involved in a case linked to comments made about President Bola Tinubu.
Yesufu spoke while reacting to a statement issued by the DSS regarding Sowore’s prosecution and remand.
The DSS in the statement said it filed charges against Sowore under the Cybercrimes Prohibition, Prevention, Amendment Act, 2024, over a social media post in which he allegedly referred to President Bola Tinubu as “this criminal”.
Reacting to the development, Yesufu questioned why the security agency became involved in the matter, arguing that any grievance arising from the statement should be pursued personally by the President through legal channels.
“Mr Sowore from this your statement said ‘this criminal’; in what way is it any of your business as an agency?” she asked.
She further maintained that if President Tinubu considered the statement false or defamatory, he should seek redress in court himself rather than involving the DSS.
Yesufu added, “If Mr Tinubu is not a criminal, why would that bother him to the extent of involving your agency? Why would that even trigger him?
“If Mr Tinubu feels it is not a truthful representation of who he is, why wouldn’t he go to court and sue? What is your business in all of this?”
She also criticized the agency’s focus on the matter amid the country’s security challenges.
“The territorial integrity of Nigeria is under threat. Lives and properties are no longer safe in Nigeria and all that you focus on is that a citizen of Nigeria referred to Mr Tinubu as ‘this criminal’?”
In the statement that prompted the reaction, the DSS maintained that Sowore’s remand was the outcome of court proceedings and insisted that the agency neither arrested him nor opposed his bail.
The agency also stated that it had filed charges seeking judicial interpretation of whether Sowore had the right to allegedly disparage and cyberbully the President through his social media posts.
Paul Ibe, a media aide to Africa Democratic Congress, ADC, presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, has lamented that former governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufai has spent 126 days in detention.
Ibe said El-Rufai’s detention has shown that President Bola Tinubu’s administration is harassing and intimidating the former governor for defecting from the All Progressives Congress, APC.
Posting on his Facebook page, Ibe described El-Rufai’s ongoing trial as a sham.
He wrote: “Yesterday marked day 126 of the abduction and detention of Mallam Nasir el-Rufai @elrufai, former Governor of Kaduna State and chieftain of the @ADCNig.
“By now, it should be clear to all, irrespective of political leaning that the Tinubu-led APC administration is harassing and intimidating el-Rufai for having parted ways with the APC.
“The sham trial of the ADC chieftain is politically motivated. We’ve gathered from those asking him to go and make “peace” (whatever that means) with President Bola Tinubu, because he (Tinubu) is allegedly focused on keeping him until after the 2027 elections.
“The adjournment of his case to September appears to confirm this. Meanwhile, the conditions of the bail granted to el-Rufai is too punitive and meant to keep him perpetually in detention.
“In fact, the bail conditions only encourages civil servants to loot maximally and acquire assets and properties at all cost while in service.”
A High Court sitting in Sokoto State has sentenced three men, including a foreign national, to death by hanging.
The sentence followed their conviction on charges bordering on terrorism and arms proliferation.
The convicts, Yusuf Muhammad (alias Sallau), a Nigerien; Jabbi Alhaji Yalle; and Kabiru Muhammad, were said to have been arrested on 13th June, 2025.
They were apprehended by the Department of State Services, DSS, Counter Terrorism Unit in connection with cross-border criminal activities bordering on arms trafficking and terrorism.
The case, marked SS/45c/2026, was presided over by Justice Muhammad Nuraddeen Bello of High Court No. 23, Sokoto.
Justice Bello, while delivering the judgment
found all three defendants guilty as charged and sentenced them to death by hanging.
The court also ordered the forfeiture of all monetary exhibits recovered from the convicts to the Federal Government.
“The conviction is the latest in a series of successful prosecutions by the DSS in its sustained operations against terrorism and organised cross-border criminal networks across Nigeria,” Justice Bello said.
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