By Ismail Auwal
Amnesty International has condemned the Nigerian government’s suspension of the activities of micro logging site, Twitter, in Nigeria.
Amnesty in a statement said the suspended social media platform is “widely used by Nigerians to exercise their human rights, including their rights to freedom of expression and access to information.”
“We call on the Nigerian authorities to immediately reverse the unlawful suspension and other plans to gag the media, repress the civic space, and undermine Nigerians’ human rights.”
Amnesty also added that, “This action is clearly inconsistent and incompatible with Nigeria’s international obligations including under the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.”
A few hours ago, the Nigerian goverment announced an indefinite suspension of Twitter operations and ordered the National Broadcasting Commission to, henceforth, regulate the activities of all OTT.
Although the statement issued by the Minister of Information, Mr Lai Mohammed, alluded to how Twitter is being used to undermine the corporate existence of Nigeria as the reason for its suspension, pundits believe that the recent removal of President Buhari’s tweets might have triggered this ban.
