President Muhammadu Buhari’s government has been accused of suspending micro-blogging site, Twitter, from operating in the country for the sole purpose of intimidating Nigerians who hold critical views about his administration.
The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) filed the suit before the Economic Community of West African States’ Community Court of Justice.
Femi Falana, SAN, filed the suit on Tuesday on the behalf of SERAP and 176 others.
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It partly read: “The suspension of Twitter is aimed at intimidating and stopping Nigerians from using Twitter to assess government policies, expose corruption, and criticize acts of official impunity by the agents of the Federal Government.”
THE WHISTLER reported on Monday that Nigeria’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama had notified the public that the Twitter ban since Friday was to ensure that the platform becomes a more “responsible” social media tool.
Recall that the ban came after Twitter deleted Buhari’s tweet for violating its “abusive behaviour” policy.
But SERAP argued that the Twitter ban was unlawful because it infringes on the rights of Nigerians.
It also urged the ECOWAS court for an order restraining the federal government from continuing with its suspension on Twitter.