Sowore Drops Bid to Call DSS DG as Witness in Criminal Defamation Trial ‎

‎Online publisher and presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC), Omoyele Sowore, has dropped his plan to invite the Director-General of the Department of State Services (DSS), Oluwatosin Ajayi, as a witness in his ongoing trial for alleged criminal defamation of President Bola Tinubu on social media.
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‎Sowore, on Tuesday, told the Federal High Court in Abuja that the evidence for which he had earlier subpoenaed the DSS boss could be obtained from any other official of the Service.
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‎For the first time since the trial began, the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, led the prosecution on behalf of the federal government.
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‎The chief law officer of the country objected to the subpoena issued on the DSS boss on the ground that the document he was to give evidence upon was not authored by him but by another person who had already testified in the matter.
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‎He argued that the letter by the DSS advising Sowore to pull down the social media posts in which he called President Tinubu a “criminal” had been tendered and admitted as exhibits twice by the same court, and there was therefore no reason for it to be tendered a third time.
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‎The AGF further argued that the author of the letter, Mr Uwen Davis, had on July 22 testified for Sowore in the trial and that the document is already in the custody of the court.
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‎Olumide Fusika, SAN, who appeared for Sowore, objected to the appearance of the Attorney-General in the matter on the ground that Akinlolu Kehinde, SAN, was the federal government lawyer on the court’s record.
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‎Meanwhile, the presiding judge, Muhammed Umar, adjourned the matter till Monday, August 3, for continuation of defence by Sowore.
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