The Centre For Public Integrity has described as “deeply troubling and alarming” a June 21, 2026 social media post by online publisher and Action Congress, AAC, presidential candidate Omoyele Sowore, in which he attacked the Nigeria Union of Journalists, NUJ, over its “Man of the Year” award to Director General of the Department of State Services, DSS, Mr. Oluwatosin Ajayi.
In a statement issued by the Centre’s National Coordinator, Comrade Job Samuel Danfulani, the group said Sowore’s post had serious moral, legal and security implications, particularly the “unwarranted and baseless attack on the NUJ”.
While acknowledging Sowore’s right to fault the award, the Centre argued that criticism should be “done with decency and within the ambit of the law”.
The statement recalled recent commendations for Mr. Ajayi from media bodies. In December 2025, the International Press Institute, IPI, honoured the DSS DG for what it called “unmistakable commitment to press freedom and respect for journalists”. IPI noted that under Ajayi’s leadership the SSS had shown “remarkable restraint, professionalism, and openness to dialogue”, unlike previous years marked by harassment of journalists.
The Centre also cited April 2025, when Ajayi ordered the removal of International Press Centre Executive Director Lanre Arogundade from the DSS watchlist after over 30 years, and October 2025, when the secret police dropped cyber defamation charges against online newspaper Order Paper and its staff following his intervention. In April 2026, the Broadcasting Organisations of Nigeria, BON, conferred a “Friend of the Media” award on the DSS DG.
The Centre questioned why Sowore did not object to the IPI and BON awards but reacted strongly to the NUJ award. The NUJ conferred “Man of the Year” on Ajayi at the end of a two-day security summit in Abuja, citing his role in building “partnership, openness and mutual respect between the media and security institutions” and his “leadership approach values engagement, transparency and partnership”.
“Sowore isn’t a journalist. He, therefore, does not and may never understand the ethics of journalism,” the statement said, adding that journalists as members of the Fourth Estate can “criticize or applaud policy makers so long as the criticism or applause is objectively earned and based on verifiable facts”.
The Centre linked Sowore’s reaction to an ongoing case, noting that the DSS under Ajayi has since been “running to the courts for adjudication of all matters, including when Sowore called President Bola Tinubu a ‘criminal’ and for which he is standing trial”.
It said Sowore was now “finding everything wrong with the NUJ award simply because a Federal High Court has asked him to open his defence in a case of alleged criminal defamation”.
The statement also referenced a recent tribute by veteran journalist and former NTA Director-General Dr. Tonnie Iredia, who praised Ajayi’s leadership style.
The Centre called on human rights organizations to condemn what it termed Sowore’s “crossing of the lines of decency”, and urged Nigerian journalists to respond to the “disrespect for their noble profession”. It appealed to the DSS DG not to allow “reckless provocative actions by Sowore distract or diminish his resolve to continue embracing the rule of law”.
The June 21 NUJ award was presented to Mr. Ajayi following the union’s two-day security summit in Abuja.