Former presidential candidate and activist Omoyele Sowore has slammed singer Adekunle Gold after a young man identified as Adeboye Samuel was sentenced to prison.

Samuel was sentenced after posting a claim on social media concerning Adekunle Gold’s daughter.

Reacting, Sowore drew the public’s attention to a past post by Adekunle Gold on social media, claiming that such a post had spread without repercussions because of freedom of speech.

The post, shared around the time Nigerians protested heavily against the Goodluck Jonathan administration’s removal of fuel subsidy in 2012, reads, “Dear God, if you give us Dagrin back, we will give you Jonathan in return.”

Sowore shared on X, “@AdekunleGold in 2012 openly criticising then-President @GoodluckJonathan. Back then, it was rightly called free speech, and if he had been arrested for those tweets, we would have been on the streets demanding his immediate release.

“How then does someone who benefited from freedom of expression turn around years later to use the police, courts, and the brutal cybercrime framework against ordinary Nigerians over online banter and social media exchanges?

‘You cannot enjoy free speech when you are powerless, and criminalise it the moment you become influential. Freedom of expression must apply to everyone, celebrities, politicians, activists, and poor young Nigerians on social media alike.”

Sowore urged the Nigeria Police Force to stop acting as a private army for the rich and famous. He also urged the judiciary to stop handing down outrageous punishments for internet speech that should never be criminal matters in the first place.