Pascal Arogorn Ibe
A former Presidential aspirant of the All Progressives Congress, Adamu Garba , has filed a suit before a Federal High Court asking the court to compel the Nigerian Communications Commission to shut down Twitter and prevent it from operating within the Nigerian cyberspace.
Garba , in a fundamental human rights suit filed on Monday , prayed the court to “ direct the 7th respondent ( NCC ) to stop the operation of Twitter International Company in any part of the territory of the Federal Republic of Nigeria . ”
Ironically , Garba , who is a very active user of Twitter , has over 32, 000 followers .
The #EndSARS protests have been largely coordinated on Twitter where it has also been able to gather funding .
Twitter Chief Executive Officer , Jack Dorsey , had last week endorsed the #EndSARS campaign and posted links to donations , a move which drew the ire of Garba .
Although the Nigerian Senate is currently considering an ‘ Anti -Social Media Bill ’ , there are no known instances of the Federal Government shutting down social media sites.
Other African countries like Burundi , Benin Republic and Sudan have in the past shut down social media amid criticisms from international rights groups .
According to the BBC , several people were unable to access these platforms except with the use of Virtual Private Networks which disguise a user’ s presence on the Internet .
In 2019, these instances of shutdowns collectively cost Sub -Saharan Africa about $2. 16bn.
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