The Department of State Services (DSS) has been forced into damage control mode after viral footage showed its operatives violently manhandling activist and AAC presidential candidate Omoyele Sowore outside a Federal High Court in Abuja sparking outrage and fresh scrutiny of the agency’s courtroom conduct.
The drama unfolded Monday after Justice Mohammed Umar ordered Sowore remanded at Kuje Correctional Centre, pending his bail revocation hearing.
But when proceedings ended, DSS operatives were filmed grabbing Sowore by the waist and dragging him through the hallway even though the court had specifically handed him over to the Correctional Service.
The DSS’s curious defense? In a Tuesday statement, spokesperson Favour Dozie claimed Sowore “curiously opted for a DSS vehicle instead of that of the Correctional Service” a detail critics say misses the point entirely. The agency also insisted it didn’t oppose Sowore’s bail and that the revocation was solely the court’s decision.
But with the public outcry growing, DSS Director-General Tosin Ajayi has now ordered an “immediate investigation” into the operatives’ conduct though the agency maintains it was simply prosecuting Sowore over a 2025 social media post where he allegedly called President Bola Tinubu “a criminal.”
The bottom line:
The DSS is now walking a tightrope defending its prosecution while trying to distance itself from the heavy-handed optics that have Nigerians asking: Who exactly is guarding the guards?
