Lawmakers lamented
that Nigerians have been losing a lot of money to the ban, especially at a time
the unemployment rate is poor.
The Joint Minority
Caucus of the National Assembly has condemned the ban on Twitter by the Nigerian
Government.
This was contained
in a statement jointly signed by the Senate Minority Leader, Senator Enyinnaya
Abaribe, and his counterpart in the House of Representatives, Hon. Ndudi
Elumelu, issued on Wednesday.
The statement was
issued after a meeting of the group on the development.
The opposition
lawmakers also dismissed the threat by the Attorney-General of the Federation
and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN) to prosecute violators of the
ban, saying Nigerians should go ahead and use alternative means to access the
application.
“The Joint Minority
Caucus of the Senate and the House of Representatives has met over the ban on
Twitter by the All Progressives Congress (APC)-led Federal Government and
restates its condemnation of the embargo as draconian and unacceptable.
“The Joint Minority
Caucus also dismisses threats by the APC-led government to arrest and prosecute
Nigerians using twitter and calls on Nigerians to go ahead and use their
twitter as they would not be contravening any law in Nigeria or any
international statute.
“The Joint Minority
Caucus recognises the provisions of Articles 19 and 20 of the United Nations
Charter on Fundamental Human Rights, which Nigeria is a signatory to, as well
as provisions of Sections 39 and 36 (12) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended),
and notes that by these provisions no one will be violating any law for using
twitter in Nigeria.
“As lawmakers, the
Joint Caucus is pained by the anguish Nigerians, especially the youths, who
find the use of twitter as a means of livelihood and genuine social
interaction, are passing through just because the APC-led Federal Government
feels slighted that an individual’s post, was deleted by Twitter for ethic
violation.
“The joint caucus,
therefore, call on Nigerians to use various opportunities offered by technology
and continue making use of twitter since such does not violate any law in our
country,” they said.
The PDP lawmakers
lamented that Nigerians have been losing a lot of money to the ban, especially
at a time the unemployment rate is poor.
“Moreover, the ban
on Twitter in Nigeria appears to be in favour of criminal and terrorist
elements, whose activities fester in an environment of suppressed information
flow.
“The Joint Minority
Caucus sympathises with the organised private sector, manufacturing and service
providing companies, small and medium enterprises, online businesses owners and
other hardworking entrepreneurs across the country, whose genuine business and
means of livelihood have been crippled by the unwarranted ban on Twitter by the
APC federal government.
“It also identifies
with our students, research-based organization, media houses, the organized
civil society, faith-based organizations, community groups among others, whose
information-based activities have been violently disrupted by the ban.
“In the same vein,
the Joint Caucus sympathises with regional, states, local government as well as
members of the international community, whose genuine and constructive activities
have been crippled by the prohibition of Twitter in Nigeria.
“It also identifies
with traditional rulers, who have even found twitter as a means of
communicating with the constituents, especially in this era of insecurity in
the country.
“The Joint Caucus
vehemently berates the APC-led government for abandoning its duty of addressing
the serious economic and security problems confronting our nation to rather
focus on dissipating energy victimizing Nigerians over their disagreement with
Twitter for deleting a post by an individual.
“The Caucus
counsels the Federal Government to swallow its pride, accept its misdoing and
go and settle whatever issue it has with Twitter instead of this resort to
inflicting pains on Nigerians,” they stated.
PDP lawmakers in
the National Assembly have also opened a Twitter account in defiance of the
ban.
This comes a few
hours after members of the party in the House of Representatives staged a
walkout over the action of the Nigerian government.
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