The Abuja Division of the Federal High Court has trashed and dismissed a fundamental rights enforcement suit instituted by Omoyele Sowore, former Presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC) in the 2023 election, against the Department of State Services (DSS), its Director-General and Meta Platforms Incorporated (formerly Facebook) for lacking merit.
In a well detailed judgment, Justice Mohammed Garba Umar resolved all three issues raised for determination against Sowore.
Sowore, a human rights activist had claimed, in the suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/1887/2025, that the decision by Meta Platforms Incorporated, allegedly acting on the instruction of the DSS and its Director-General, led to the removal of a post he made referring to President Bola Tinubu as a criminal and the deactivation of his Facebook account.
The claimant who is the online publisher of Sahara, had, on August 26, 2025, published a post on his Facebook account in which he referred to President Bola Tinubu as a “criminal”.
In the post, Sowore said: “This criminal actually went to Brazil to state that there is no more corruption in Nigeria. What audacity to lie shamelessly!”
Sowore argued that the decision by Meta Platforms Incorporated, allegedly acting on the directive of the DSS and its Director-General, to take down his post and deactivate his account without hearing from him contravened his rights to a fair hearing, freedom of expression and freedom of association.
Justice Umar, in resolving the first issue, held that Sowore wrongly made allegations of contravention of his right to a fair hearing against the three respondents — DSS, its Director-General and Meta Platforms Incorporated.
The judge held that the claims made by Sowore against the respondents did not relate to a fair hearing as envisaged under the fundamental rights enforcement procedure.
According to him, “The law is that, to seek to enforce fundamental right to fair hearing provided under Chapter four of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), the alleged violation must be in respect of proceedings before a court or tribunal established by law.
“There would be no case of infringement of the right to fair hearing under Section 36(1) of the 1999 Constitution when the decision alleged to have violated one’s constitutional right to fair hearing is that of a non-judicial body.
“In the instant case, the alleged violation to right to fair hearing of the applicant (Sowore) was made against the respondents, which were not contemplated under Section 36(1) of the 1999 Constitution as explained by judicial authorities.
“In the light of the above, it is my holding here that fair hearing is not applicable to the instant case.”
Speaking to the second issue, Justice Umar held that the complaint made by the DSS and its Director-General about Sowore’s 26 August 2025 Facebook post and the decision by Meta Platforms Incorporated to take the post down and deactivate his account did not amount to violations of his rights to freedom of expression and freedom of association, guaranteed under Sections 39 and 40 of the Constitution.
The judge further held that the rights to freedom of expression and association are, like all other constitutionally guaranteed rights, not absolute.
