The Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, has told a Federal High Court in Lagos that the Federal Government has not stopped Nigerians from using Twitter.
Malami and the Federal Government said this in a counter-affidavit they deposed to in response to an originating motion filed by a lawyer, Inibehe Effiong.
This was contrary to the earlier stance of the FG with its threat to prosecute Nigerians who were still using Twitter after the micro-blogging site had been suspended
Since Twitter was banned, on June 4, 2021, many Nigerians have through Virtual Private Network accessed it.
The FG had through as statement made by Malami threatened to prosecute Nigerians still using the platform. The authorities through the National Broadcasting Commission went ahead to direct all radio and television stations to stop using Twitter or picking content from it.
But, Effiong, dragged the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, Malami, and the Federal Government for suspending the social media platform.
In the counter-affidavit deposed to by Ilop Lawrence on behalf of the Federal Government and the AGF, it was claimed that Nigerians had not been stopped from accessing Twitter.
“The applicant (Effiong) and the class he seeks to represent can still operate those Twitter accounts from anywhere in the world and even from Nigeria. Nigerians are still tweeting, even at this moment as the ban on Twitter is not aimed at intimidating Nigerians or an infringement on the rights of Nigerians to express their opinion.
“The respondents (Federal Government and AGF) have never stopped the applicant (Effiong) and the class of persons he seeks to represent from voicing their opinions to access government information and offer criticism where necessary,” it partly read.
