A Human Rights Lawyer, Inibehe Effiong, has on Tuesday, dragged the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, Attorney-General of the Federation, AGF, and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, SAN, as well as the President Muhammadu Buhari Federal Government, to court as it resumed today, for suspending Twitter from operating in Nigeria, indefinitely, .
Effiong is seeking 9 reliefs, including an order of perpetual injunction, restraining the Respondents from further suspending, deactivating, or banning the operation and accessibility of Twitter or any other social media service in Nigeria.
He also asked the court to declare as illegal, the threat of criminal prosecution issued by AGF Malami and Lai Mohammed, against Nigerians who continue to use Twitter, despite its indefinite suspension, despite the absence of any written Law to that effect.
Effiong asked the court to declare that the act of the Respondents in “suspending the operation and accessibility of Twitter in Nigeria, without any written law that is reasonably justifiable in a democratic society enabling the said suspension is unconstitutional, unjustifiable, undemocratic, arbitrary, null and void and amounts to a violation of the right of the applicant and other Nigerians to use Twitter for expression, reception of information and impartation of ideas and is therefore contrary to Section 39 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended) and Article 9 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (Ratification and Enforcement) Act, Cap. A9 L.F.N. 2004. Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004.”
In his supporting affidavit, Effiong stated that he is an active Twitter user, and currently has 45,500 Followers, and follows 13,600 accounts on the platform, including dozens of accounts of broadcast Stations in the country, which can no longer operate on the platform.
The Human Rights Activist said that as a Public Affairs Commentator, he uses Twitter to express his views on the failure, inadequacies and performance of the government at all levels, including the Federal Government and its Agencies.
He recalled, that on June 1, 2021, President Muhammadu Buhari, who is a Twitter user, tweeted a series of tweets in a thread, in response to the agitations in the South-East, on his verified Twitter account with the handle @MBuhari, with millions of followers.
President Buhari’s tweet was considered offensive by many Nigerians, who flagged it and reported it to Twitter.
Effiong noted that Twitter subsequently deleted the President’s tweet, a move that led to the suspension of Twitter days later.
He said that it was a known fact that every Twitter user had agreed to abide by the Rules of the platform before being allowed to use it.
He stated that the decision of the Respondents to suspend Twitter afterwards, has gravely “infringed on my freedom of expression and that of broadcast stations and other Nigerian citizens who depend and rely daily on Twitter for information, expression and impartation of ideas. This has caused me emotional trauma and distress and limited my capacity to connect with the global community”.
Elsewhere, the Minister of Information has on Tuesday, claimed that Twitter has written to the Federal Government seeking for dialogue on the issues leading to the indefinite suspension of its operations in the country.
The Minister confirmed this when he featured on “Politics Nationwide”, a Radio Nigeria call-in programme.
He had all these to say: “I can confirm that Twitter has written the Federal Government, that they are ready to talk.
“As we have always maintained, the door is not locked, and we are open-minded, but Twitter must work towards it.
“Singapore, Algeria, Pakistan, Turkey regulate the social media, Australia has done so.
“Even EU that does not have particular laws on social media has made recommendations in a white paper.
“We must not confuse press freedom with irresponsibility.
“How can you stay in your country and allow your own platform to be used to propagate war in another country?
“The suspension of Twitter is to ensure that no particular platform is used to cause war in Nigeria.
“Secondly, to ensure that whoever is making money in Nigeria must be made to pay tax.
“Our appeal to Nigerians is that they should understand where we are coming from.
“We have no intention to stifle people’s freedom or to cut off the source of livelihood of anybody.
“There must be a country devoid of war before we can talk of freedom and a source of living,’’ he said.