SERAP, Falana Write ECOWAS Court Over Twitter Ban

The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project, SERAP, has asked the ECOWAS Court of Justice in Abuja to order an injunction restraining the government of President Muhammadu Buhari from implementing unlawful suspension of Twitter in Nigeria and criminalising Nigerians and other people using Twitter.

In the suit No ECW/CCJ/APP/23/21 filed today by Solicitor to SERAP, Femi Falana SAN, we contend that “if this application is not urgently granted, the government will continue to arbitrarily suspend Twitter and threaten to impose punishment on Nigerians and other people.”

The suit, read in part: “The suspension of Twitter is aimed at intimidating and stopping Nigerians from using Twitter to assess government policies, expose corruption, and criticize acts of official impunity by the agents of the Federal Government.”

The micro-blogging platform has been suspended due to the deletion of a tweet made by President Buhari threatening the South Eastern region of the country with war.

Nigerians bypassed the ban by using the virtual private network to tweet which caused the Attorney General of the Federation to announce that anybody caught tweeting will be prosecuted.