ABUJA — Presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC), Omoyele Sowore, has accused operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS) of discriminatory treatment after he was initially prevented from entering the venue of the National Peace Committee’s Peace Accord signing in Abuja on Tuesday.

Sowore, who later attended and signed the accord alongside other presidential candidates, made the allegation in a post on his official Facebook page on August 18, 2026. His account of the encounter was also publicly available on the platform.

According to Sowore, DSS operatives stopped him at the entrance and demanded to see his invitation letter, despite one of the officers allegedly acknowledging that he knew Sowore was a presidential candidate.

Sowore further claimed that while he was being questioned, another presidential candidate arrived in a long convoy and was allowed into the venue without facing similar scrutiny.

He alleged that security officials subsequently informed him that his staff members would not be permitted to accompany him inside, before also attempting to prevent his camera crew from entering.

The AAC candidate said he rejected what he described as unequal and discriminatory treatment, insisting that all presidential candidates invited to the Peace Accord should be treated with the same level of dignity regardless of their security arrangements, convoys or perceived political influence.

“If this is supposed to be a ‘Peace Accord’ involving presidential candidates, then every candidate must be treated with equal dignity and respect,” Sowore said in the Facebook post.

He criticised what he described as a culture of “intimidation, class discrimination and arbitrary treatment” by Nigerian security agencies, maintaining that access to official events should not be determined by the number of vehicles or armed escorts accompanying an individual.

Sowore said he continued to insist on being allowed access and was eventually admitted into the venue with his team.

The Peace Accord signing, organised by the National Peace Committee chaired by former Head of State Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar, brought together presidential candidates ahead of the commencement of campaigns for the 2027 general elections. The ceremony was held at the Bola Ahmed Tinubu International Conference Centre in Abuja.

Sowore was among the candidates who eventually signed the agreement, which seeks to secure commitments from political parties and candidates to peaceful and issue-based electioneering ahead of the polls.

As of the time of this report, the DSS had not been independently shown in the sources reviewed to have issued a public response specifically addressing Sowore’s allegation about his treatment at the entrance.