The Federal High Court sitting in Abuja has dismissed an application by Omoyele Sowore seeking to compel the Director-General of the State Security Service, SSS, Oluwatosin Ajayi, to personally appear as a witness in his trial over alleged cyberbullying of President Bola Tinubu.
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Hon. Justice Mohammed Garba Umar dismissed the application on Monday, holding that the evidence sought from the SSS related to the official activities of the agency and was not personal to its Director-General.
Sowore, the presidential candidate of the African Action Congress in the 2027 general election, is standing trial over allegations arising from his description of President Tinubu as “a criminal.”
At the resumed proceedings, the court delivered its ruling on arguments concerning a subpoena earlier issued to the SSS Director-General at Sowore’s request.
Through his counsel, Adeyinka Olumide Fusika, SAN, Sowore had urged the court to compel Ajayi to appear personally and testify on the official activities of the SSS relating to the case.
The SSS, represented by Akinlolu Thomas Kehinde, SAN, opposed the application, arguing that another competent official of the agency could give the required evidence.
Kehinde submitted that the subject of the proposed testimony concerned the official acts of the SSS rather than any personal act of its Director-General, and that the agency could therefore nominate another official to testify on its behalf.
In his ruling, Justice Umar agreed with the SSS, holding that the subpoena related to an official act of the agency and that the expected testimony was not personal to the Director-General.
The court consequently ruled that another SSS official could appear and give evidence on behalf of the agency, thereby dismissing Sowore’s request for Ajayi’s personal appearance.
Following the ruling, Sowore’s counsel called the third defence witness, Michael Jego, an investigating officer with the SSS, who began giving evidence before the court.
The ruling followed earlier decisions in the proceedings in which the court dismissed Sowore’s challenge to the trial on fundamental rights grounds and his preliminary objection. His request for the recusal of the trial judge had also previously been rejected by the Chief Judge.
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