The Federal High Court in Abuja, on Tuesday, restored the bail it had earlier granted to activist and presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC), Omoyele Sowore.

Sowore is facing a two-count cybercrime charge filed against him by the Department of State Services (DSS) for calling President Bola Tinubu a “criminal” in a social media post.

Trial Justice Muhammed Umar, who had earlier granted the defendant bail on self-recognisance, on June 16 revoked the bail and issued a warrant for his arrest.

The order came after Sowore failed to appear before the court for the continuation of his trial, even though he wrote a letter explaining his absence and requesting a new date.

When proceedings resumed in the case on June 22, Justice Umar ordered the remand of the defendant in Kuje prison.

Dissatisfied with the actions the court took against him, Sowore—whose legal team had initially withdrawn from the case over alleged bias by the judge—secured a new lawyer, who promptly filed a motion to restore his bail and quash the arrest warrant.

When the case came up on Tuesday, Justice Umar held that he was minded to admit the defendant to bail.

However, the court listed some conditions that had to be met before he would be released from prison custody.

Aside from granting him bail to the tune of N200 million, the court held that the defendant must produce two sureties in like sum.

The court also ordered the defendant to surrender his international passport.

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Sowore, in the application he anchored on Sections 35(4), 36(1), and 66 of the 1999 Constitution, as amended, as well as Sections 169 and 352 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA) 2015, insisted that the orders the court made against him were unjust and unwarranted.

The defendant had, on December 2, 2025, pleaded not guilty to the charge marked FHC/ABJ/CR/484/2025, filed against him by the Department of State Services (DSS).

The charges allege offences under Sections 24(1)(b) and 24(2)(a), (b), and (c) of the Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention, Etc.) (Amendment) Act, 2024.

The offending posts, made on August 25, 2025, were in response to President Tinubu’s claim, made in Brazil, that his administration had ended corruption in Nigeria.

Angered by the posts, the DSS demanded that X Inc. (formerly Twitter) and Meta Platforms Inc. ban Sowore’s accounts and remove the posts.

The security agency also wrote to Sowore, asking him to delete the posts from all platforms.

Non-compliance with the request led to the charges.

The prosecution claims the defamatory posts were intended to cause a breakdown of law and order and to tarnish the president’s reputation.

Exhibits include printouts of the posts and the DSS letters.

X Inc. and Meta were initially co-defendants but were delisted in the amended charge.

Several hours of torrential rains Tuesday triggered severe flooding in Nigeria’s commercial capital of Lagos this week, as the country’s weather agency warned of more rains in the coming days.

Heavy rains sweep Nigeria between May and November, often resulting in dangerous floods where poor infrastructure and inadequate drainage often worsen the impact across Africa’s most populous country.

No casualties have been reported as of Tuesday.

Flooding is common in many parts of the crowded city including in highbrow districts such as Lekki and Victoria Island where AFP reporters saw flooded streets.

Videos on social media showed inundated homes and businesses as well as submerged major roads and cars.

A viral social media video also showed residents paddling wooden canoes through floodwaters in the upscale Lekki district.

A resident of Okota area of Lagos told AFP that people used canoes to evacuate their flooded homes.

“The rain has taken over my house,” 54-year-old trader Rukayat Saidu in Amukoko, another district of Lagos told AFP. “All my appliances have been destroyed.”

The coastal city of more than 20 million people has long grappled with clogged waterways, fuelled by indiscriminate waste disposal, weak government waste management and urbanisation.

The Nigeria Democratic Congress, NDC, said it has uploaded the name of its presidential candidate, Peter Obi, to the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, portal after filing an appeal and an application for a stay of execution against a court judgment ordering the party’s deregistration.

National Leader of the NDC, Senator Seriake Dickson, disclosed this in a statement on Monday, saying the party had served the appeal and accompanying application on the INEC Chairman and urged the electoral body to act in accordance with the law.

Dickson maintained that the NDC remained a duly registered political party, noting that it had participated in all electoral processes and concluded its primary elections under INEC’s supervision.

According to him, the party had been granted access to the INEC portal to upload the names of its candidates for the 2027 general elections.

He said the names of both himself and the party’s presidential candidate, Peter Obi, had been uploaded to the portal, while that of the vice-presidential candidate would be submitted upon completion of the necessary documentation.

The former Bayelsa State governor added that the party remains within the timetable released by INEC, stating that submissions for National Assembly candidates will close on July 11, while those for governorship and state assembly candidates will end on July 17.

Dickson also appealed to party members to remain calm, saying there was no cause for panic as the reconciliation process had begun following the conclusion of the party’s primaries.

He assured unsuccessful aspirants that they would be accommodated in the party’s campaign structures and committees.

According to him, with the appeal and stay of execution application now before the courts, the judiciary will determine the next course of action in accordance with the law.

“Today, the NDC has filed an appeal against the ruling as well as a stay of execution/injunction, which has been served with a covering letter to the INEC chairman and his team to do what is right according to law and what is legally sensible.

“The Nigeria Democratic Congress has come to stay and remains a duly registered party in Nigeria which has participated in all the political processes so far, and, as I said yesterday, nomination processes have already been concluded and, in the eyes of the law, candidates have already emerged from the party for all offices across the country in primaries observed, monitored and recorded by INEC.

“What is left is the administrative process of submitting the names to INEC, and we have been granted access to the portal to upload our qualified candidates,” part of the statement read.