A Federal High Court in Abuja has rejected the request of the presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC), Omoyele Sowore, to compel a lawyer to the Department of State Services (DSS), Akinlolu Kehinde (SAN), to testify as a defence witness in his ongoing trial for alleged cyberbullying.
In a ruling yesterday, Justice Mohammed Garba Umar set aside the subpoena earlier issued to Kehinde.
Justice Umar held that lawyers owe their clients a strict duty of confidentiality and cannot ordinarily be compelled to disclose communications on legal representation.
The judge also held that a legal practitioner could only be compelled to testify under limited circumstances, particularly where the evidence sought is connected to an uncontested matter or an issue that would not prejudice the interests of the client.
After the ruling, Sowore’s lawyer, Ruben Adakole, said his client had applied for the issuance of subpoenas on a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Joe Igbokwe, and the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Joash Amupitan, as witnesses.
Justice Umar granted the request and directed that subpoenas be issued to the listed witnesses to appear in court.
He adjourned the matter till tomorrow for the subpoenaed witnesses to appear in court.
The DSS is prosecuting Sowore for his August 2025 published posts on X (formerly Twitter) and Facebook, in which he described President Bola Ahmed Tinubu as a ‘criminal’ and accused him of lying about the level of corruption in the country.