Justice Mohammed Umar of the Federal High Court, Abuja, has ordered the African Action Congress (AAC) presidential candidate, Omoyele Sowore, to enter a defence in his ongoing trial for alleged criminal defamation of President Bola Tinubu.

In a ruling, Justice Umar rejected a request by counsel to Sowore, Marshall Abubakar, that further hearing in the case be adjourned until after the court’s forthcoming vacation.

The judge ordered that further hearing in the case be conducted daily, beginning from Friday, June 5, when the defendant shall be obligated to open his defence.

Sowore, an online publisher, is being prosecuted by the Department of State Services (DSS) for allegedly making false claims against President Tinubu by calling him “a criminal” in posts he made on his X and Facebook accounts.

At the day’s proceedings, the prosecuting lawyer, Akinlolu Kehinde (SAN), said the case was fixed for June 4 to get the Chief Judge’s response to a May 19, 2026 letter from Sowore requesting that the case be assigned to another judge.

Kehinde said he was served on May 26 with a copy of the Chief Judge’s response, dated May 22, in which the defendant’s request was declined, and the court was ordered to continue hearing the case.

He then applied that the judge orders the defendant to enter his defence.

Responding, Abubakar claimed that a portion of the Chief Judge’s response directed the defendant to file a formal application so that it could be heard in open court.

Abubakar urged the court to adjourn the case until after the court’s forthcoming vacation to enable his client to participate in next year’s presidential election.

Replying, Kehinde faulted Abubakar’s interpretation of the Chief Judge’s response.

He stressed that the case before the court had nothing to do with political activities in the country.

“The letter from the Chief Judge of this court did not ask the defendant or his counsel to file an application for recusal. So, it is disingenuous for counsel to read into the letter an interpretation that the Chief Judge did not include in the letter,” Kehinde said.

Following a disagreement between both lawyers on the content of the Chief Judge’s response, Justice Umar called for a copy of the letter and read through it, following which he declared Abubakar wrong.

“From the content of the letter, there is nowhere the defendant is asked to file an application before this court.

“This court is not denying the defendant the right to file any application. This can be done anytime before judgment,” Justice Umar said.

The judge said the current stage of the case merely required the defendant to enter his defence.

Thereafter, the judge ordered Sowore to enter his defence.

He also ordered that the hearing in the case proceed daily, in line with the provisions of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA).

Following the judge’s order, Abubakar sought an adjournment until after the court’s vacation for the defendant to open his defence.

Again, Kehinde, SAN, objected, noting that having ruled and ordered a daily hearing, the ruling of the court was in consonance with the law.

“The law is that the defendant shall proceed with his defence. There is no option. We are ready. There is no room for dilatory practice for a defendant facing a criminal trial,” he added.

The prosecuting lawyer also said that “the option left at this point is for the defence to continue or simply be foreclosed. It is either they continue, or they are foreclosed”.

Justice Mohammed Umar subsequently adjourned until June 5 for the defendant to open his defence.

‎Justice Emeka Nwite of the Federal High Court in Abuja has sentenced four terrorists to death by hanging for carrying out the June 5, 2022 deadly attack on Saint Francis Catholic Church in Owo, Ondo State.

‎The convicts were among the five accused persons who had been standing trial on a nine-count terrorism charge filed by the Department of State Services (DSS), in connection with the attack at the church where over 40 worshippers were killed, and over 100 suffered varying degrees of injury.

They are Idris Abdulmalik Omeiza (25), Al Qasim Idris (20), Jamiu Abdulmalik (26), and Abdulhaleem Idris (25).

The fifth defendant, Momoh Otuho Abubakar (47), was discharged and acquitted. ‎

In his verdict, Justice Nwite convicted the four defendants on all nine counts of committing acts of terrorism in breach of the Terrorism (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, citing crimes including membership of a proscribed terrorist group — Al-Shabab (an ISWAP affiliate), conspiracy to commit a terrorist act, and kidnapping, hostage-taking and killing the over 40 worshippers.
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He held that the prosecution proved its case against the convicts beyond reasonable doubt.

Nwite, however, held that the prosecution failed to prove its case against the fifth defendant.

Scores of people were killed, and many were injured when gunmen opened fire on worshippers at the Catholic Church in the headquarters of Owo Local Government Area of Ondo State.

The incident sparked widespread condemnation, with various individuals and groups calling on the government to ensure the assailants were arrested and brought to justice.

The DSS had called witnesses to establish the allegations against the defendants in the trial that began on August 1, 2025.

The trial court admitted the confessional statements of the defendants following the conclusion of the trial- within-trial conducted to establish that the witnesses’ statements were voluntarily given.

One of the five accused persons, Omeiza, had told the court how he was arrested by the secret police.

Opening his defence, he was led in evidence in an accelerated hearing conducted at the instance of the DSS, by his lawyer, Abdullahi Muhammad.

Although Omeiza claimed to be an auxiliary nurse, he chose to narrate his testimony in Ebira, prompting the court to seek an interpreter.

He told the court that he was arrested on August 1, 2022, alongside two other young boys named Hauwa and Yusuf, in the same house.

In his lengthy testimony, the defendant told the court that it was at the DSS facility in Lokoja, the state capital, that he met the fifth defendant, Abubakar, who had also been arrested by operatives of the secret police.

At the DSS office in Lokoja, Omeiza had explained that the four of them were kept in a room where information in respect of their names, schools attended, their work, and their father’s name was obtained and recorded.

He had said the following day, he volunteered a statement and was in detention till August 18, 2022, when he got to know that his elder brother was also arrested.

Omeiza had also claimed he was detained alongside his elder brother in the same room where interrogators questioned them about the attack on the Owo Catholic Church.

In his final submission, counsel for the prosecution, Ayodeji Adedipe (SAN), had urged the court to convict the defendants and impose the maximum sentence of death in view of the enormity of the crime they allegedly committed.

Adedipe had argued that the prosecution painstakingly established its case against the defendants through compelling evidence and detailed investigations, which he said reflected the determination of security agencies to ensure accountability for one of the deadliest attacks on innocent worshippers in Nigerian history.

But counsel for the defendants, Abdullahi Mohammad, prayed the court to discharge and acquit his clients on the grounds that the prosecution was unable to establish its case against them.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has confirmed that one of its staff members with legitimate access to its Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) database is now at the centre of an investigation into the unauthorised disclosure of a voter record belonging to a candidate in a recent party primary in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

INEC confirmed the development on Tuesday in a statement by National Commissioner and Chairman of the Information and Voter Education Committee, Mohammed Kudu Haruna, after allegations of a database compromise swept across social media and sections of the press.

According to the electoral umpire, the Department of State Services (DSS) has commenced a parallel probe into the breach.

The commission’s internal audit trail pointed squarely inward. “Preliminary findings from the Commission’s audit trail so far indicate that there was no external breach of the CVR database, no hacking incident, and no unauthorised external access to the Commission’s ICT infrastructure. Rather, the information in question was accessed through valid user credentials assigned to personnel participating in the ongoing CVR exercise but released without authority,” Haruna stated.

Registration officers conducting the nationwide CVR exercise had been granted controlled access to specific components of the database for the limited purposes of registering new applicants, processing transfer requests, and updating voter records — access the commission described as strictly restricted to official duties and withdrawable at the close of the exercise.

INEC said the audit trail had enabled investigators to pinpoint the specific user account through which the record was retrieved.

Relevant personnel had since been questioned, and all units connected with the incident were cooperating with the investigation, said Haruna.

The commission added that it was examining every technical, administrative, and operational angle of the matter to establish individual responsibility and determine whether internal access-control protocols had been violated.

On the reach of the breach, the commission said only a single voter record had been accessed, and the personal data of over 90 million registered voters remained secure. The integrity of the broader voter registration infrastructure, it said, was not in question.

The DSS, INEC disclosed, has launched its own independent investigation without any prompting from the commission.

INEC said it would cooperate fully with the agency and all other relevant security bodies, and warned that anyone found culpable would be referred for prosecution.

It urged the public and the media to set aside speculation while investigations continue. The commission also pledged to publish its final findings and any measures taken in response to the incident once they are concluded.