The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has charged the Federal Government to rescind Friday’s suspension of Twitter’s operations in Nigeria or face legal action.
The rights group made this known in a tweet.
Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed announced the indefinite suspension in a statement signed by his Special Assistant on Media, Segun Adeyemi.
“The Federal Government has suspended, indefinitely, the operations of the microblogging and social networking service, Twitter, in Nigeria.
“The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, announced the suspension in a statement issued in Abuja on Friday, citing the persistent use of the platform for activities that are capable of undermining Nigeria’s corporate existence.
“The Minister said the Federal Government has also directed the National Broadcasting Commission to immediately commence the process of licensing all OTT and social media operations in Nigeria,” the statement read.
The action appeared to be in reaction to Twitter’s decision to delete a tweet from President Muhammadu Buhari’s official handle @MBuhari on Tuesday.
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Despite the ban, The Herald can confirm that Nigerians could still access their Twitter accounts as of 8:20 p.m local time.
Reacting, SERAP described the suspension as “illegal”.
The group called on the Federal Government to immediately lift the suspension or it would have no other choice than to initiate a lawsuit.
“We’re suing Nigerian authorities over their ILLEGAL indefinite suspension of Twitter in Nigeria.
“Nigerians have a right to freedom of expression and access to information including online, and we plan to fight to keep it that way.
“@NigeriaGov, we’ll see you in court.”