The ECOWAS Court of Justice in Abuja has restrained the Federal government from unlawfully prosecuting people who use the microblogging platform Twitter. Recall that the attorney general of the Federation Abubakar Malami had threatened to prosecute those violating FG’s ban on the social media’s operation in Nigeria through the use of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs).
The ruling followed the suit filed against the government by Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) and 176 concerned Nigerians arguing that “the unlawful suspension of Twitter in Nigeria, criminalization of Nigerians and other people using Twitter have escalated repression of human rights and unlawfully restricted the rights of Nigerians and other people to freedom of expression and access to information.
The court gave the order after hearing arguments from Solicitor to SERAP, Femi Falana, and lawyer to the government Maimuna Shiru. The court restrained the Federal government from unlawfully imposing sanctions or harass, intimidate, arrest or prosecute Twitter and/or any other social media service provider(s), media houses, radio and television broadcast stations, the Plaintiffs and other Nigerians who are Twitter users, pending the hearing and determination of this suit.” The substantive suit has been adjourned to 6th July 2021 for a hearing of the substantive suit.
Read also: President Buhari Approves FG Team To Engage With Twitter – Lai Mohammed
KOKO Trending Video: 10 Nigerian Celebrities With Banging Bodies In 2021
Photo Credit: Getty
