Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, says
Twitter is the social media platform of choice for the leader of the proscribed
Indigenous People of Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu, to “destabilise Nigeria”.
Mohammed made this known on Monday evening during an
interview with BBC News Africa.
The minister, while defending the Federal Government’s
Twitter ban, maintained that the regime won’t allow any separatist set the
country on fire.
He said, “The government has suspended indefinitely the
operations of Twitter in Nigeria because of the persistent use of the platform
for activities that are capable of undermining Nigeria’s corporate existence.
“The government also directed the regulatory agency which is
the National Broadcasting Commission to immediately commence the process of
licensing all OTT and social media operations in Nigeria.
“The main reason for this is because of the persistent use
of Twitter in particular for activities that are inimical to the corporate
existence of Nigeria.”
Mohammed added, “IPOB, Nnamdi Kanu in particular, his
platform of choice to destabilise the country is Twitter.
“Twitter is actually
the platform of choice for the separatist leader who resides outside Nigeria
but issues directives for his members to attack the symbols of authority such
as policemen, soldiers, correctional centres, electoral offices and this has
been done willfully and consistently without consequences using always the
Twitter platform.”
Mohammed noted that the Attorney-General of the Federation
and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, SAN, would decide the prosecution of
persons violating the Twitter ban.
Recall that the Federal Government, last week, suspended
Twitter after the micro-blogging platform deleted a controversial civil war
post by the President, Muhammadu Buhari.
Mohammed had accused Twitter of double standards for sparing
Kanu’s tweets yet clamped down on his principal.
The San Francisco-based social media giant subsequently
deleted a tweet by Kanu where he threatened that “any army they send to
#Biafraland will die there. None will return alive even if it means sacrificing
my people”. The IPOB leader has over 300,000 followers on Twitter.
The Buhari regime has since come under fire for what many
termed as a restriction of the right of expression. The international community
including the European Union, the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada,
amongst others have since knocked the Buhari regime for the action but the
Federal Government has been unyielding in its stance.
Click to signup for FREE news updates, latest information and hottest gists everyday
Advertise on NigerianEye.com to reach thousands of our daily users
No comments
Post a Comment
Kindly drop a comment below.
(Comments are moderated. Clean comments will be approved immediately)
Advert Enquires - Reach out to us at NigerianEye@gmail.com