The Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operations of Nigeria (ALTON) has confirmed receipt of formal instructions from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to suspend access to Twitter.
The Chairman of the association, Engr.Gbenga Adebayo,and its Executive Secretary, Gbolahan Awonuga, who confirmed this in a statement, said based on national provisions in the Nigerian Communications Act, 2003, and within the licence terms under which the industry operates; members have acted in compliance with the directives of the NCC.
It added :“As an industry, we endorse the position of the United Nations that the rights held by people offline must be protected online. This includes respecting and protecting the rights of all people to communicate, to share information freely and responsibly, and to enjoy privacy and security regarding their data and their use of digital communications.”
Nigerians have now resorted to Virtual Private Network (VPN) to access the micro-blogging site in the absence of their deactivated twitter accounts
The Federal Government had Friday suspended, indefinitely, the operations of the microblogging and social networking service, Twitter, in Nigeria.
The Minister of Information and Culture, announced the suspension in a statement issued in Abuja on Friday, citing the persistent use of the platform for activities that are
capable of undermining Nigeria’s corporate existence.
Segun Adeyemi, Special Assistant To The President (Media), Office of the Minister of Information and Culture, who made this known in a statement, quoted the Minister as saying that the Federal Government has also directed the
National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) to immediately commence the
process of licensing all OTT and social media operations in Nigeria.
Meanwhile,the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has rejected the suspension of the social media platform, Twitter, by the President Muhammadu Buhari-led Federal Government, describing it as a draconian action and a slide towards a fascist regime in the country.
The party maintained that the suspension of twitter, is a vexatious, condemnable and barbaric move to muzzle Nigerians, particularly the youths, ostensibly to prevent them from holding the overtly corrupt, vindictive and divisive Buhari administration accountable for its atrocities, including human right violations, patronizing of terrorists and outright suppressive acts against innocent Nigerians.
The party said it was appalled that the Federal Government could exhibit such primitive intolerance and power intoxication because the social media giant demonstrated international best practices in not allowing the Buhari presidency to use Twitter as a platform to propagate and spread the Buhari administration’s hatred towards Nigerians.
The PDP, in a statement by its spokesman, Kola Ologbondiyan, insisted that rather than being a platform for activities that are capable of undermining Nigeria’s corporate existence, as claimed by the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, Nigerians, particularly the youths, have been using the social media platform, largely, for activities that promote unity, as well as social, economic and commercial interaction in the country.
“Our party notes that Mr. Lai Mohammed, in his statement, failed to cite an example of where Nigerians used Twitter as a platform to promote acts that are capable of undermining Nigeria’s corporate existence as he claimed.
“Of course, the failure to give any such instance, confirms that the Federal Government is only out to victimize Nigerians.
“The Buhari Presidency and the All Progressives Congress (APC) administration are only afraid of Nigerians on Twitter because of their evil machinations for which they dread the Nigerian youths.
“Moreover, freedom of speech is firmly guaranteed in our constitution and the Buhari administration should be ready to face Nigerians over its misrule.
“In the case of any infringement, our nation has adequate extant laws to deal with such and not this move to gag the people,” the party said.
The PDP therefore charged President Buhari to end this assault against Nigerians by immediately and unconditionally rescinding its decision to ban Twitter, as such amounts to pushing the citizens to the wall.
“Afterall, it was the same Twitter that provided President Buhari and the APC the platform to campaign in 2015 and 2019.
“It is also on record that President Buhari would not be the first President in the world whose tweet would be deleted.
“When it happened to former US President Donald Trump, he was not known to have deployed any act coercion against Twitter.
“Our party invites President Buhari to halt this international shame by rescinding this ugly decision,” the party said.
