A new book has unveiled how former Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, clashed with the Department of State Services (DSS) over its refusal to comply with a court order for the release of activist and publisher, Omoyele Sowore, during the Muhammadu Buhari administration.
The revelation is contained in “I WRITE WHAT I LIKE”, a new book authored by veteran journalist Richard Akinnola.
According to Akinnola, sometime in 2019, during Sowore’s prolonged detention, he sought an audience with then Vice President Osinbajo to press for his intervention. At the time, the DSS had repeatedly disobeyed court orders granting Sowore bail, drawing both local and international condemnation.
Akinnola noted that Osinbajo had already made efforts to compel the DSS to release Sowore, which nearly escalated into a direct confrontation with the security agency.
Quoting the Vice President, the author wrote:
“Osinbajo said he had a job to return to after leaving office and could not stand by while such court orders were being ignored. The DSS told him that there could not be two presidents, a veiled reference to when Osinbajo, as acting president in 2018, sacked Lawal Daura as DG of DSS.”
Akinnola further explained that on the day he visited Osinbajo to plead for Sowore’s release, the Vice President again mounted pressure on the government. By that same day, Sowore was freed.
Beyond the Sowore case, the author also recounted how he sometimes used advocacy and backchannel strategies to secure bail for other detainees, including the embattled Shiite leader, Sheikh Ibrahim El-Zakzaky.
The 198-page book, comprising twenty chapters, is largely a compilation of Akinnola’s Facebook posts between 2017 and 2025.
It is scheduled for public presentation on Saturday, September 13, 2025, at the Airport Hotel, Lagos, coinciding with the author’s 67th birthday summit tagged “A Handshake Across the Niger: The Yoruba/Igbo Detente.” The event will be chaired by Iba Gani Adams, the Aare Ona Kakanfo of Yorubaland.
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