The Federal High Court in Abuja, on Wednesday, rejected documents sought to be tendered by the defence in the ongoing cyberbullying trial of activist and publisher, Omoyele Sowore.
Justice Mohammed Umar rejected the documents after ruling that they could not be properly admitted through the prosecution’s first witness, who had earlier told the court that he was unaware of their contents.
The PUNCH reports that Sowore is standing trial on a two-count amended charge of cybercrime for describing President Bola Tinubu as a “criminal” in a social media post made on August 25, 2025, following Tinubu’s claim during a visit to Brazil that corruption in Nigeria had ended under his administration.
During cross-examination, defence counsel, Marshal Abubakar, attempted to tender online publications relating to alleged corruption cases involving public institutions and officials, including reports of dismissals within the Department of State Services and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, as well as prosecutions by the EFCC.
Abubakar stated that the DSS had dismissed 115 officers in 2025 for corruption, while the EFCC dismissed 27 staff for fraud and misconduct, charged five governors for corruption, and arrested officials of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) in connection with an alleged N7.2bn fraud.
The defence counsel argued that the documents were relevant, insisting they were intended to show that corruption had not ended in Nigeria and that even anti-graft agencies, including the DSS, were still grappling with corruption.
However, prosecution counsel, Akinlolu Kehinde (SAN), objected, contending that the documents were irrelevant to the cyberstalking charge against Sowore and did not comply with Section 84 of the Evidence Act.
Kehinde told the court that the publications were neither produced by the witness nor shown to be relevant to the matter before the court, urging Justice Umar to reject them.
In his ruling, the judge held that the documents could not be tendered through a witness who had already testified that he was unaware of them and accordingly marked them rejected.
Similarly, the defence sought to tender documents allegedly containing statements attributed to President Bola Tinubu against former Presidents Goodluck Jonathan and Olusegun Obasanjo, as well as reports on Nigeria’s corruption ranking by Transparency International.
Abubakar argued that Tinubu, in 2011 while he was in Lagos, had described then-President Jonathan as a “drunkard and sinking fisherman” and his administration as “corrupt and shameless,” while also describing former President Obasanjo as “expired meat.”
The witness said he was not aware of the statements.
The prosecution again objected on grounds of relevance and admissibility, arguing that the person who deposed to the documents was not in court as a witness.
Justice Umar upheld the objections and rejected the documents.
In his testimony, the DSS witness said he was unaware of Nigeria’s ranking in the global corruption index and also denied knowledge of alleged social media posts by political figures, including Femi Fani-Kayode and Reno Omokri, accusing President Tinubu of corruption, drug trafficking, and complicity in the murder of former Lagos governorship candidate, Funsho Williams.
At the close of proceedings, Abubakar applied for an adjournment to continue the cross-examination of the witness.
Justice Umar adjourned the case until March 5, 2026, for continuation of cross-examination.
