The Federal Government has told a Federal High Court in Lagos that it has not stopped Nigerians from using social media platform, Twitter, adding that many Nigerians are still using it every day.
The Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, and the Federal Government says in a counter-affidavit they deposed to in response to an originating motion filed by human rights lawyer, Inibehe Effiong. The government had on June 4, 2021, suspended Twitter barely two days after the social media platform deleted a tweet by the President, Muhammadu Buhari.
However, many Nigerians have bypassed the Twitter suspension by using Virtual Private Network.
Malami in a statement threatened to prosecute Nigerians still using the platform while the National Broadcasting Commission ordered all radio and television stations to stop using Twitter or picking content from the platform.
Rights lawyer, Effiong, subsequently sued the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, Malami, and the Federal Government for suspending the social media platform.
Effiong asked the court to declare as illegal the threat of criminal prosecution by Malami and Lai Mohammed against Nigerians who ‘violate’ the suspension or ban of Twitter, despite the absence of any written law.
In an affidavit deposed to by Mr Ilop Lawrence on behalf of the Federal Government and the AGF, it states that the suspension of Twitter was not an abuse of human rights because Nigerians were still using Twitter despite the suspension.
The government told the court that Nigerians are still free to use other platforms like WhatsApp, Facebook, Tiktok and others.
The Federal Government also denied knowledge of Twitter deleting Buhari’s tweet on the Biafra civil which offended many Nigerians.
