Human rights activist and former presidential candidate, Omoyele Sowore, has rejected the Department of State Services’ (DSS) demand that he withdraw a social media post criticising President Bola Tinubu.

In a letter addressed to the DSS Director-General, Sowore described the agency’s request as unlawful and an attempt to act as a proxy for the president.

“You have no business telling me how to criticise the President,” he said. “The determination of the Nigerian people to reclaim their country from thieves in power is unwavering. Freedom cometh by struggle. Aluta continua, victoria ascerta.”

Sowore recalled what he called the DSS’s long record of repression against him, citing multiple arrests in 1993, 1996, and 2019. He also mentioned his detention over treason and money laundering charges, and the DSS’s invasion of a Federal High Court during one of his trials.

According to him, the DSS has repeatedly acted “bullishly, illegally, and unlawfully” under different governments, and its attempt to demand a retraction on Tinubu’s behalf was “fundamentally defective and unconstitutional.”

He stressed that the right to free speech is protected by Nigeria’s constitution and African human rights treaties, adding that defamation is a personal issue that cannot be pursued by the DSS for the president.

Sowore insisted that his stance reflects his long-standing activism, declaring that Nigerians remain resolute in their fight to reclaim the nation from “thieves in power.”