The ongoing criminal defamation trial of Omoyele Sowore took a swift turn on Tuesday after the activist dropped his demand to subpoena the Director-General of the Department of State Services (DSS), Oluwatosin Ajayi.
In a sitting at the Federal High Court in Abuja, defence counsel Adeyinka Olumide-Fusika (SAN) initially challenged the presence of Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice Lateef Fagbemi (SAN). Olumide-Fusika argued that another Senior Advocate, Akinlolu Kehinde, was recorded as lead counsel for the prosecution, maintaining that while the AGF possesses constitutional power to appear in any matter, proper notice should have been given to the defence beforehand.
Despite the preliminary challenge, Fagbemi urged Justice Mohammed Umar to set aside the summons. The AGF argued that forcing the DSS chief to testify was unnecessary because the document in question, a written demand asking Sowore to delete a Facebook post allegedly referring to President Bola Tinubu as a “criminal”, had neither been written nor signed by Ajayi. Fagbemi noted that the letter had already been admitted into evidence twice and that its actual author, DSS officer Uwen Davis, had already testified for the defence on July 22.
The Federal Government maintained that Ajayi remained unaware of the summons, even though the court registrar confirmed to Justice Umar earlier in the sitting that service had been formally delivered to the DSS Director of Legal Services.
Conceding the point following the legal arguments, Sowore, a human rights campaigner and former African Action Congress (AAC) presidential candidate, informed the court he would no longer pursue Ajayi’s personal appearance, acknowledging that another DSS officer could provide the required evidence.
Justice Umar subsequently adjourned proceedings until August 3 for the defence to continue.