The Federal Highway Court has asked the presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC), Omoyele Sowore to continue his defence on October 2 in the alleged cyber-bullying case brought against the politician by the Department of State Services (DSS).
There were social media reports last month that the DSS would, upon the resumption of the courts from its annual long vacation, seek an extended adjournment to enable Sowore concentrate on his presidential campaign.
Sowore is being prosecuted over his August 2025 published posts on X (formerly Twitter) and Facebook describing President Tinubu as a “criminal” and accusing him of lying about corruption level in the country.
At the conclusion of the prosecution’s case, Sowore made a no case submission, which the court rejected and ordered him to enter his defence.
He also lost in his bid to have the trial judge recuse himself from the case after his allegation of bias was rejected by the court’s Chief Judge.
At Monday’s hearing, prosecuting lawyer, Akinlolu Kehinde (SAN) told the court that the case was fixed for September 28 for Sowore to continue his defence.
Defence lawyer, Adeyinka Olumide-Fusika (SAN) said the defendant was expecting a subpoenaed witness from the DSS, but that the defence may be unable to proceed without the witness.
Olumide-Fusika recalled that on the last date, the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), Lateef Fagbemi (SAN) had reached an understanding with the defence that another officer of the DSS would be sent to represent the agency’s Director General, who was originally subpoenaed.
He said since nobody came from the DSS to represent its DG, the defence would have no option than to apply for an adjournment.
The defence lawyer said since the witness is subpoenaed and he is not in court, the defence has the option of applying that the witness behaviour arrested a d produced in court.
Olumide-Fusika also tendered some newspaper publications where the DSS was reported to have promised to instruct its lawyer to seek the suspension of proceedings in the case until after the next general elections.
The defence lawyer said he had expected that the prosecution would, at the resumption of proceedings on Monday, apply for an extended adjournment as was reported in the media.
When asked by the judge, Justice Mohammed Umar why no official of the DSS was in court in view of the understanding with the AGF, Kehinde said it was not his responsibility to produce a witness for the defence, arguing that it was the defence’s responsibility to ensure that it witness was in court.
Kehinde also faulted the decision by Olumide-Fusika to rely on publications on social media in the conduct of his case. He denied knowledge of such publications and urged the court to discountenance them.
He urged the court to order the defendant to proceed with his defence, failing which he would be forced to apply that the defence be foreclosed.
Ruling, Justice Umar said since the subpoenaed witness was not available, he would give the defence another time to produce its witness.
He adjourned till October 2 for the continuation of defence.
