AGF Appears Unexpectedly In Sowore’s Cyberstalking Trial, Seeks To Stop DSS chief’s subpoena

His appearance ended up as an effort to rally against Sowore’s request to subpoena the Director-General of the Department of State Services, DSS, Oluwatisin Ajayi, for cross-examination by his team of lawyers.
The DSS brought charges against Sowore over his social media posts from last year calling Mr Tinubu a criminal.
Sowore, the presidential candidate of the African Action Congress, AAC, for the forthcoming 2027 general elections, faces criminal defamation, cyberstalking and incitement charges stemming from the posts before Judge Mohammed Umar.
The trial recorded Fagbemi’s appearance  for the first time on Tuesday.

Fagbemi led a team of lawyers, including the Director of Public Prosecutions, DPP, Rotimi Oyedepo, and the lead prosecution on record, Akinlolu Kehinde, among others, in the trial, urging the court to reject Sowore’s request to subpoena Mr Ajayi, the DSS chief, to testify in his defence.
The AGF said the DSS had been so responsive enough to allow the second defence witness, an official from the service, to give testimony on the last adjourned date, saying the application for Ajayi to testify was to delay the proceedings.
Sowore, first informed the judge on July 22, of his plan to have Ajayi and presidential spokesperson, Bayo Onanuga, summoned separately as defence witnesses.
Premium Times reported that, Sowore’s lead defence lawyer, Adeyinka Olumide-Fusika, said this after a subpoenaed DSS official and Principal Officer, General Services, Uwem Davies, could not answer some questions from the defence team during the July 22, hearing.

He said the court subpoenaed him to testify in the case at Mr Sowore’s request even as he also, confirmed writing a letter, on the directive of the Director General of the SSS, requesting the defendant to take down his post on his X and Facebook platforms because it was generating tension in the society.
The witness said the letter, dated January 22, was the only letter he wrote asking the defendant to retract what he had posted on his social media handle regarding President Bola Tinubu.
When shown a letter dated September 7, 2025 addressed to the MD, CEO of Meta, Facebook’s parent company, the witness said the letter contained his name, but was not authored by him.
He said one B. Bamigboye, who was also subpoenaed, was his  colleague in the same department, but had since retired.
The witness further said he did not interface with Sowore before writing the defendant, but acted on the directive of the DG of the DSS, Mr Ajayi.
Fielding further questions during cross-examination on his and Mr Ajayi’s relationship with Mr Tinubu, in view of their claim that Mr Sowore’s post infuriated a number of the president’s  supporters, the witness said he could not tell if they were supporters of President Tinubu.
He insisted that as a lawyer employed by the DSS, he was instructed by the DG of the DSS to write Sowore to retract his alleged false post about the president.
On whether he interacted with the supporters of the president before writing the letter, Mr Davies said he did not, but wrote the letter as directed by his employer.
At this point, Mr Olumide-Fusika told the court he would have no option but to subpoena the DG of the DSS because Mr Davies had been unable to answer his questions as desired.
Davies said that all he did in respect of the case was in his official capacity, not personal capacity.
He said the subpoena, which he tendered earlier, was served on the SSS and that the subpoena was passed on to him in his official capacity.
The witness confirmed that he and B. Bamigbose worked in the same department, but that  Mr Bamigboye had retired from service and his present location was unknown to his employer.
He said Bamigboye authored the letter to Chairman/CEO X Corp on behalf of the DG of SSS in respect of this case.
HePrincipal Officer, General Services added that Bamigboye authored the letter in his official capacity.
Mr Davies said he had a copy of the letter with him.
Mr Kehinde then applied to tender both documents in evidence, but Mr Olumide-Fusika objected and the judge upheld the objection.
Although Mr Olumide-Fusika told the court that he had 20 witnesses to call, he applied for adjournment to enable him prepare his application for the issuance of a subpoena on the DG of DSS.
Mr Olumide-Fusika said he had also applied that a subpoena be issued on the spokesman for President Tinubu, Bayo Onanuga.
The lawyer, however, said that the court’s bailiff told him that he had been unable to serve Mr Onanuga with the subpoena.