"I Brought My Prison Bag": Sowore Remanded in Kuje Over a Tweet Calling Tinubu a "Criminal"

Omoyele Sowore, the perennial activist, journalist, and African Action Congress presidential candidate, spent Monday night behind the walls of the Kuje Correctional Centre in Abuja — not because a court had found him guilty of anything, but because a federal judge dismissed his bid to have the trial removed from his courtroom and, in the same sitting, ordered him detained until the case resumes this Wednesday. The detention is the latest and most dramatic escalation yet in a cybercrime and criminal defamation prosecution that traces back to a single social media post from ten months ago, in which Sowore called President Bola Tinubu a "criminal."

How a Tweet Became a Federal Prosecution

The case originates in August 2025, when Sowore posted on X and Facebook criticizing remarks President Tinubu had made during a state visit to Brazil, describing the president as a "criminal." When the Department of State Services demanded that he take the posts down, Sowore refused, citing his right to free speech. That refusal became the foundation of a federal prosecution: the DSS subsequently filed a two-count charge against him under Section 24 of the amended Cybercrimes Act, 2024, accusing him of cyberstalking and criminal defamation. The government's theory, as laid out by Punch's reporting, is that Sowore's online rhetoric was "knowingly false and intentionally deployed to incite public disorder." Sowore has pleaded not guilty throughout.

In May 2026, presiding judge Justice Mohammed Umar rejected an application from Sowore's legal team seeking to have the charges dismissed outright, ruling instead that the prosecution had established sufficient grounds for him to be required to enter a defence. That ruling set the stage for the trial's continuation — and for the chain of events that would ultimately land Sowore in Kuje.

A Legal Team Withdraws, and a Defendant Goes It Alone

Tensions in the courtroom escalated sharply in early June. On June 5, Sowore's legal team withdrew from the case entirely, citing what they described as intimidation and humiliation by Justice Umar after the court ordered day-to-day hearings in the matter. Left to represent himself, Sowore responded by filing an application asking Justice Umar to recuse himself from the case altogether, alleging a pattern of institutional bias that he argued compromised his right to a fair trial.

The situation deteriorated further on June 16, when Sowore failed to appear for a scheduled continuation of his defence. The prosecution characterized his absence as a deliberate delay tactic. Sowore's own account of events differs sharply: he maintains that he had, in fact, shown up for the previous scheduled sitting on June 15, only to find that the judge himself was absent without notice, and that he had subsequently filed a formal letter with the court registry informing them of planned travel — a notice the court ultimately disregarded when it issued a warrant for his arrest the following day. Justice Umar revoked Sowore's self-recognition bail and issued a bench warrant on the strength of the prosecution's characterization of the missed date.

By the time Monday's hearing arrived, Sowore had a new lead counsel: Adeyinka Olumide-Fusika, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, who according to Sowore's supporters had formally written to and briefed the court regarding the timeline of confidential legal consultations that had taken Sowore away from the June 16 sitting. The court proceeded regardless.

Monday in Court: Recusal Denied, Remand Ordered

On Monday, June 22, Justice Mohammed Garba Umar dismissed Sowore's recusal application, finding no basis to withdraw from the case, and in a short ruling ordered that Sowore be kept at Kuje Correctional Centre pending the hearing of a separate motion for stay of execution of the bail-revocation order and bench warrant — a motion filed by his new counsel, Olumide-Fusika. The matter was adjourned to Wednesday, June 24, for that stay application to be heard.

Sowore arrived at court that morning accompanied by members of his support group, carrying placards — and, by his own account, his own prison bag, anticipating exactly the outcome that followed. Speaking to journalists outside the courtroom afterward, he described the scene directly: "The court was told by the prosecutors that they must insist on sending me to jail until Wednesday. But guess what? I brought my prison bag. And I told the judge that said he cannot recuse himself that when they are ready, I am ready."

Sowore's Defiance From Detention

Sowore's reaction to the remand order has, true to his three-decade public profile as an activist, leaned entirely into defiance rather than appeal for leniency. Posting on X immediately after the ruling, he wrote: "Justice Mohammed Umar refused to recuse himself from presiding over my case and then ruled that I be remanded in custody. I addressed our Comrades on the solid need to remain resolute in pursuit of justice. There is no going back."

In remarks delivered to supporters gathered outside the court, Sowore framed his detention as part of a continuous, decades-long struggle against what he characterizes as the impunity of Nigeria's political leadership: "I feel privileged that I am the one who has stood the test of time against the impunity of our leaders. Some of them pretended that they were democrats in 1993. In 2026, we discovered that they are monsters, and I am referring to Tinubu. And I am insisting once again, because I was brought here by Buhari in 2019, I said then and I repeat again that nobody can defeat the revolution. And shame, sorrow, tears will visit the families of the people who do injustice to people who fight for social justice."

He went further in a statement transmitted from detention, rejecting any suggestion that imprisonment could blunt his political activity: "I need hardly say that I am the least bothered by this development." Speaking separately to The Sun, he described the case against him as "bogus" and called on his supporters to remain committed to what he termed a "revolution" aimed at ending oppression, injustice, and misrule in Nigeria, concluding: "The struggle continues. Victory is certain."

Who Is Omoyele Sowore

For readers unfamiliar with him, Sowore is one of Nigeria's most consistently prominent dissident voices over the past three decades. He is the founder and publisher of Sahara Reporters, an investigative news platform that has built its reputation on exposing corruption among Nigeria's political elite, and he has run for president of Nigeria multiple times as the candidate of the African Action Congress. His history of confrontation with Nigerian state power long predates the current case — he has previously referenced being detained under the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari in 2019, an episode he frequently cites as part of the continuity of his activism. His comment that "nobody can defeat the revolution," delivered both in 2019 and again this week, reflects a deliberate framing of his current legal troubles as one chapter in a much longer personal and political narrative rather than an isolated prosecution.

What Comes Next

The matter returns to court on Wednesday, June 24, when Justice Umar is scheduled to hear the stay application filed by Olumide-Fusika, seeking to halt execution of the bail revocation and bench warrant that led to Sowore's detention in the first place. Whatever the outcome of that specific motion, the underlying criminal defamation and cybercrime case — built entirely on a single social media post from August 2025 — continues, with Sowore expected to resume presenting his defence once the procedural disputes over his detention and the judge's recusal are resolved.

The case sits at the center of an increasingly familiar and contested intersection in Nigerian public life: the use of the amended Cybercrimes Act, 2024 to prosecute online criticism of the president, and the broader question of where the line falls between protected political speech and criminal defamation under Nigerian law. For now, that question remains unresolved, and Omoyele Sowore remains in Kuje Correctional Centre, by his own account entirely unbothered, awaiting Wednesday's hearing.

Sources

1. Punch Newspapers — Cybercrime trial: Court remands Sowore in Kuje prison
2. The Gazelle News — Abuja Court Remands Sowore In Kuje Prison over Alleged Criminal Defamation
3. Kemi Filani News — Court remands Sowore in Kuje prison over defamation
4. Information Nigeria — Defamation: Court Remands Sowore On Kuje Prison
5. Ripples Nigeria — Sowore sent to Kuje Prison as court rejects bias allegation in cybercrime trial
6. Alexa.ng — Prominent Human Rights Activist Omoyele Sowore Remanded to Kuje Prison, Vows to Continue Revolutionary Mobilization from Detention
7. The Sun Nigeria — Criminal defamation: Court remind Sowore in Kuje prison, dismisses recusal application
8. Nigeria Info FM — Court Remands Sowore in Kuje Prison, Dismisses Recusal Application
9. Daily Intel Newspapers — Court remands Sowore in Kuje prison