A public affairs analyst, Lemmy Ughegbe, has said that free speech is not a licence for African Action Congress (AAC) presidential candidate, Omoyele Sowore, to defame him.
He gave Sowore seven days to apologise to him for calling him “Bingo” of the Director-General of the Department of State Services (DSS), Oluwatosin Ajayi, or face legal action.
The demand is contained in a pre-action letter dated 5 November 2026 and written on Ughegbe’s behalf by his solicitors, Johnbull Adaghe & Company, Legal Practitioners and Notary Public, based in Abuja.
According to the letter, on or about 2 November 2026, Sowore posted the following defamatory remarks on his Facebook page: “Listen to this outrageous statement from @officialDSSNG DG TOSIN AJAYI’S Bingo, Lemmy Ughegbe.”
According to the solicitors, addressing their client as “bingo” puts him “in the stead of a dog”, in the negative sense of being aggressive, belligerent and destructive.
They said the publication had cast a stain on Ughegbe’s character and honour built over decades of hard work, and had lowered him in the estimation of right-thinking members of the public.
The letter further states that the publication was not a response to Ughegbe’s interview on Channels Television, “but was made out of mischief, with intent to injure his character and smear his reputation.”
The letter noted that Sowore’s publication was amplified by Sowore’s online news platform, Saharareporters, which on Facebook and “X” has over 10 million followers. The intention, said Ughegbe’s lawyer, was to dent his reputation.
Ughegbe, in the letter, demanded that Sowore pulls down the publications and render an unreserved apology on his social media pages, on Sahara Reporters, as well as in one national daily newspaper, within seven days of receiving the letter.
The solicitors warned that should Sowore fail to comply, they will, without further notice, proceed against him in a court of law.
Speaking on the matter, Ughegbe said: “Criticism is a right. Distortion is not. I made a fair point on national television about the restraint of the DSS. Sowore is free to disagree with me, loudly and often. He, however, is not free to strip my words of their meaning and then defame me for the meaning he invented.”
He added: “A man who seeks to lead Nigeria must learn that free speech has never been a licence to defame. Somewhere, somehow, a line must be drawn, and I have chosen the courts to draw it.”
Ughegbe, a senior journalist, columnist, management consultant and Executive Director of the Men Against Rape Foundation, had said on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics on 1 November 2026 that the DSS had shown restraint in its dealings with Sowore. He contrasted the Service under its current leadership with the “Gestapo manner of the past”.
The following day, Sahara Reporters manipulated and published his remarks under the headline: “If The DSS Wants To Kill Any Nigerian, They Could Easily Do It, But They Have Been Nice To Nigerians.” Ughegbe says the headline deliberately distorted his fair comment.
