Adamu Garba, former presidential aspirant of All Progressives Congress (APC) has urged the Federal Government to shut down Twitter from Nigeria’s internet space.
Garba said Twitter has no right to take down President Muhammadu Buhari’s tweet.
On Wednesday, the social media platform deleted a tweet wherein Buhari spoke about the civil war experience and threatened to deal with those “bent on destroying” Nigeria through “insurrection”.
In the since-deleted post, Buhari stated;
Those of us in the fields for 30 months, who went through the war, will treat them in the language they understand.
However, following backlash from many Nigerians, Twitter said the message — which many had reported — violated its rules.
It did not provide further details on the action, but its policy states that such measure is sometimes taken because “the behaviour violates the Twitter rules.”
Read Also: Twitter Deletes Buhari’s ‘Civil War’ Tweet Threatening Arsonists In South East
Reacting to Twitter’s action while addressing state house correspondents on Wednesday, Mohammedaccused the platform of turning a blind eye on the activities of Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), which Federal Government have declared a terrorist organisation.
The minister expressed;
Twitter may have its own rules, it’s not the universal rule. If Mr President, anywhere in the world, feels very bad and concerned about a situation, he is free to express such views. If an organisation is proscribed, it is different from any other which is not proscribed.
He stressed;
Two, any organisation that gives directives to its members to attack police stations, to kill policemen, to attack correctional centres, to kill warders, and you are now saying that Mr President does not have the right to express his dismay and anger about that? We are the ones guilty of double standards.
I don’t see anywhere in the world where an organisation, a person will stay somewhere outside Nigeria, and will direct his members to attack the symbols of authority, the police, the military, especially when that organisation has been proscribed. By whatever name, you can’t justify giving orders to kill policemen or to kill anybody you do not agree with.
Also reacting to this in a tweet, Garba, a former presidential aspirant said the micro-blogging site should be banned in Nigeria.
He wrote;
Twitter has no right to infuse into our local political affairs. It’s a company not a government. By removing our democratically elected President’s speech to the people of Nigeria, Twitter needs to be shut down from Nigeria’s internet space. Twitter needs to get out of Nigeria.
Twitter has no right to infuse into our local political affairs. It’s a company not a government.
By removing our democratically elected President’s speech to the people of Nigeria, Twitter need to shutdown from Nigerian internet space.
Twitter need to get out of Nigeria.
— Adamu Garba II (@adamugarba) June 3, 2021
It would be recalled that in 2020, he also instituted a $1 billion lawsuit against Twitter and its founder, Jack Dorsey, at Federal High Court Abuja, over their alleged role in the #EndSARS protests which led to violence in some parts of the country, resulting in loss of lives and destruction of properties.
Jack was accused of actively supporting the funding of #EndSARS protests across the nation, as disclosed by Adamu Garba through a series of tweet posts on his official Twitter handle on Tuesday, October 20, 2020.
However, in 2021, he withdrew the suit, saying his case “with Jack was to prevent Nigerian from getting this foreign inteference in the name of human rights to cause havoc”.
He revealed that he is monitoring Dorsey and his company to ensure that he completely withdraws his support for the protest.
Garba threatened to reactivate the suit if Jacktweets about the halted #EndSARS protest.
