Reverse Twitter ban, US agency tells Nigerian govt

Again, the United States of America on Wednesday called on President Muhammadu Buhari to rethink and revoke the suspension of the micro-blogging platform, Twitter, in Nigeria.

Specifically, a top American senior diplomat and current administrator of the US Agency for International Development (USAID), Samantha Power, using her verified Twitter handle, argued that there are nearly 40 million users in Nigeria using the platform, as the country is home to Africa’s largest tech hub.

She maintained that the suspension was nothing more than a state-sanctioned denial of free speech and should be reversed immediately.

Ripples Nigeria reported that the Federal Government through the office of the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, had banned Twitter.

Following the ban, the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, had criminalised anyone accessing the microblogging site through other means, although he logged on to Twitter to deactivate his account on Tuesday, after an outcry by users that many top government officials were yet to deactivate their accounts.

READ ALSO: Buhari has destroyed Nigeria’s image globally with Twitter ban —HURIWA

Meanwhile, prominent Nigerians had continued to use the platform, saying the ban is against freedom of speech and fundamental human rights.

Also, the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Projects (SERAP) and 176 Concerned Nigerians had on Tuesday filed a suit against the FG in the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) court, urging them to revoke the suspension.

Twitter had deleted a tweet by President Buhari, on the Biafra-Nigeria civil war, saying it violated its rules, while the Federal Government subsequently banned the platform from operating in the country.

By Victor Uzoho

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