The ECOWAS Court in Abuja has declared that the suspension of the use of Twitter in Nigeria by President Buhari-led administration was unlawful.
The court, in a judgement on Thursday, in a suit filed by the Social Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) and 176 concerned Nigerians, also ordered Nigeria government never to ban the use of Twitter in the country again.
It would be recalled that the deletion of President Muhammadu Buhari’s tweet made the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, announced the suspension of Twitter in Nigeria.
The ECOWAS Court in Abuja has declared that the suspension of the use of Twitter in Nigeria by President President Buhari was unlawful.
The court, in a judgement on Thursday, in a suit filed by the Social Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) and 176 concerned Nigerians, also ordered the administration never to ban the use of Twitter in the country again.
It would be recalled that following the deletion of President Muhammadu Buhari’s tweet, the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, announced the suspension of Twitter in Nigeria.
Recalled, the government also threatened to arrest and prosecute anyone using Twitter in the country, while the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) asked all broadcast stations to suspend their patronage of Twitter.
The ECOWAS court, in its judgement on Thursday, held that the act of suspending the operation of Twitter in Nigeria 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.
The Court said, “The Buhari government in suspending the operations of Twitter violates the rights of SERAP and 176 concerned Nigerians to the enjoyment of freedom of expression, access to information and the media, as well as the right to a fair hearing.”
The Court also ordered the Buhari administration to take necessary steps to align its policies and other measures to give effect to the rights and freedoms and to guarantee a non-repetition of the unlawful ban of Twitter.
The Court also ordered that Buhari administration should bear the costs of the proceedings and directed the Deputy Chief Registrar to assess the costs accordingly.