July 27, (THEWILL) – A Federal High Court in Lagos has fixed October 4 to hear a suit by the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) challenging the legality of the Federal Government’s suspension of the operations of micro blogging and social media website, Twitter.
The Incorporated Trustees of the NBA filed the suit numbered FHC/L/CS/613/202 on June 18, following the government’s June 4 threat to prosecute Nigerians who defy the directive by continuing to use Twitter.
Nigeria’s President, Muhammadu Buhari; the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami; the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed; and the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) are first to fourth defendants, respectively.
The NBA, via its seven-member legal team led by Dr. Charles Mekwunye, is seeking 11 reliefs. They include, among others, a declaration that the ban or suspension of the microblogging site is unlawful and a declaration that any prosecution of users of the site will be unconstitutional.
It is also seeking a declaration that the ban affects the business, employment and economic activities of lawyers and Nigerians generally and an order mandating all mobile network and internet service providers to unblock the use of the microblogging and social media site.
Nigeria suspended Twitter after the microblogging platform pulled down a tweet by President Buhari on the ground that it violated its rules.
A few days after restricting citizens’ access to Twitter, the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) also directed all broadcast outfits to “suspend the patronage of Twitter immediately,” labelling the platform as “unpatriotic”.
The legality of the government’s move has been widely questioned and stakeholders in the civic space have moved to challenge the controversial decision, which has sparked national outrage and attracted international criticism for weeks.
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