Coalition of Civil Society Groups institute lawsuit against Telcos over Twitter ban

The agitation against the ban of Twitter services in Nigeria rages as a coalition of Civil Society Groups have instituted a lawsuit against telecommunications companies over the mandate.

Ripples Nigeria gathered that the lawsuit was filed on Friday by Enough Is Enough (EIE) Nigeria, Paradigm Initiative Nigeria and Media Rights Agenda, against Airtel, Globacom and MTN Nigeria.

This was confirmed via a statement issued by Khadijah El-Usman, Paradigm Initiative Nigeria’s programme officer for Anglophone-West Africa who said “The suit calls for a declaration that the respondents’ blockage of twitter access was unlawful, unconstitutional and against the rights to freedom of expression and an injunction restraining all respondents from restraining blocking or interfering with Twitter and any other social media platform.

“These are all pursuant to rights assured by the Nigerian Constitution and the African Charter of Human and Peoples Rights.

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“A directive not rooted in Law cannot be a basis for the abuse of the human rights of millions of Nigerians,” El-Usman said.

“It is to this effect that EIE Nigeria as the sole applicant coordinating with other organizations including Paradigm Initiative and Media Rights Agenda have instituted a class action suit against Telecommunications companies MTN, Airtel, Globacom and 9mobile for an enforcement of fundamental rights.”

Twitter services were suspended in June by the Federal Government after a tweet by President Muhammadu Buhari was deleted for breaching the site’s rules.

However, the Nigerian government insisted the suspension was a matter of national security and not related to the deletion of Buhari’s tweet.

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