NASS Minority Caucus ‘Advise’ Nigerians To Disregard Twitter Ban

The Joint Minority Caucus of the Senate and the House of
Representatives, Wednesday, described federal government’s ban on twitter in Nigeria as ‘draconian and unacceptable’.

The caucus also dismissed threats by the federal government to arrest and prosecute Nigerians using twitter. It therefore advised Nigerians to “go ahead and use their twitter as they would not be contravening any law in Nigeria or any international statutes”.

The caucus stated this in a statement signed by Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, minority leader of the Senate, and Hon Ndudi Elumelu, minority leader of the House of Representatives, which was made available to THE WHISTLER.

The statement read in part, “The Joint Minority Caucus recognizes the provisions of the United Nations Charter on Fundamental Human Rights, which Nigeria is a signatory to see Article 19 and 20, as well as provisions of Sections 39 and 36 (12) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) and notes that by these provisions, no one will be violating any law for using twitter in Nigeria.

“As lawmakers, the joint caucus is pained by the anguish Nigerians, especially the youths who find the use of twitter as a mean of livelihood and genuine social interaction, are passing through just because the APC-led federal government feels slighted that an individual’s post was deleted by Twitter for ethic violation.”

It urged Nigerians to ‘to use various opportunities offered by technology and continue making use of twitter since such does not violate any law in our country’.

It regretted that ‘Nigeria and Nigerians have been losing billions of naira on a daily basis since the ban on twitter’.

It stated further that the ban on Twitter in “Nigeria appears to be in favour of criminal and terrorist elements, whose activities fester in an environment of suppressed information flow.”

The caucus sympathized with the organized private sector, manufacturing and service providing companies, small and medium enterprises, online businesses owners and students, among others, ‘whose genuine business and means of livelihood have been crippled by the unwarranted ban on Twitter by the APC federal government’.