Economic Community of West African States’ Court has declared “unlawful” the suspension of Twitter by the Federal Government.
The court also ordered the regime of the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), “never to repeat it again”.
This followed a suit by Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project and 176 concerned Nigerians, according to SERAP’s Deputy Director, Kolawole Oluwadare.
The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, announced the suspension of Twitter in Nigeria following the deletion of Buhari’s tweet.
Then the FG also threatened to arrest and prosecute anyone using Twitter in the country, while the National Broadcasting Commission asked all broadcast stations to suspend the patronage of Twitter.
But in the judgment delivered on Thursday, the ECOWAS court declared that it has the jurisdiction to hear the case, and that the case was therefore admissible.
The Court also held that the act of suspending the operation of Twitter is unlawful and inconsistent with the provisions of Article 9 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights and Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights both of which Nigeria is a state party.
