Media Rights Agenda (MRA) on Tuesday condemned the blocking
of websites associated with End SARS protests by Nigerian authorities.
It called the action a dictatorship and a brazen violation
of the operators’ rights, as well as suppression of Nigerians who get
information from the platforms.
The websites, www.feministcoalition2020.com,
www.endsars.com, and www.radioisiaq.com, are currently down in Nigeria but
accessible from other countries.
In a statement by Chioma Nwaodike, Head of Legal Department,
MRA contended that the President Muhammadu Buhari administration was engaging
in illegality and disrespecting international human right laws.
The organisation insisted that the blocking of the websites
cannot be a proportionate response to any offensive content that any of them
may have published.
MRA said as a State Party to the International Covenant on
Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), Nigeria is bound by Article 19 of the
instrument which requires that any restriction on the right to freedom of
expression must be prescribed by law and pursue a legitimate aim.
Nwaodike accused the Nigerian government of “going down a
frightening path by adopting a highhanded measure of maintaining an information
blackout in a democratic country”.
She warned that the situation was “a usual feature of governments
that are leaning towards extreme dictatorship”.
“Even if the operators of the websites have committed any
offence, by blocking the websites without reference to the courts or the due
process of law, the Nigerian government has constituted itself into an accuser,
a judge and executioner”, the statement added
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