By Uche Mbah
Attorney general of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, has officially deactivated his account on twitter.
Twitter has been down since the Federal Government banned the big Tech company from the Nigerian cyber space. Since then Nigerians have been only able to access twitter via Virtual Private Network, VPN.
Government has also outlawed the use of VPN in accessing Twitter, going as far as, allegedly, requesting the help of Chinese Government in erecting a firewall to block the use of VPN.
However, it appears that the Attorney General downloaded VPN in order to access his account and deactivate it, going against his own law.
Since the ban on Twitter, many Nigerians, still using Twitter have, allegedly, been daring the Government by tagging the Attorney General with their tweets in a bold move of defiance.
The General Overseer of the Redeem Christian Church of God, RCCG,Pastor Enoch Adeboye, had said his Church is protected by UN charter for free speech, and as such, the Church account will not be deactivated. Same is the case with Pastor William Kumuyi of the Deeper Life Ministry.
But Minister of Information Lai Mohammed, was quoted as saying that both Clerics may be prosecuted by the Attorney General.
Meanwhile, Benue state Governor, Samuel Ortom, has ignored the “stop tweeting” order by tweeting via his official handle Tuesday, calling the decision to ban twitter by the Federal Government “illegal”.
“The ban on twitter is not only illegal but is also an ill- advised move to divert the attention of Nigerians from the Federal government failure to tackle insecurity in the country. It amounts to suppression of fundermental human rights and gagging of social media.”
Former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, had earlier twéeted through his official handle saying that the tweet was not going to be his last tweet. “Hopefully, this isn’t my last tweet”, he said.
