HURIWA implores Buhari to respect ECOWAS Court ruling on Twitter ban

The Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to respect the ruling of the ECOWAS Court banning the prosecution of Nigerians using Twitter.

Ripples Nigeria had reported that the ECOWAS Court delivered a ruling earlier on Tuesday, that government should not prosecute citizens for using Twitter.

The Federal Government had recently suspended Twitter operation in Nigeria owing to allegations that it allows for contents capable of threatening the corporate existence of Nigeria.

Despite the ban, some Nigerians have continued to access the medium via the use of a Private Virtual Network (VPN).

Read also: HURIWA urges National Assembly to probe alleged reappearance of SARS operatives in South-East

However, the HURIWA on Tuesday via a statement issued by its National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, and the National Media Affairs Director Miss Zainab Yusuf urged Buhari to respect the law.

“We have always known that President Buhari acted ultra vires the law of Nigeria and especially the well-grounded fundamental right provision of the Constitution when he arbitrarily banned the use of the social media platform of Twitter by over 40 million Nigerians following the decision of Twitter to delete his post deemed inimical to the rules of the online platform.

“President Buhari must obey the decision of the ECOWAS Court particularly when the current ruling on Twitter vitiated and invalidated his government’s draconian and military styled attack against the Constitutionally guaranteed human Rights clearly spelt out in chapter four of the constitution of the Federal Republic of 1999 especially section 39 (1) and 40,” HURIWA said.

By Mayowa Oladeji…

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