The Minority Caucus in the House of Representatives has described the “declaration” by the All Progressives Congress (APC) led Federal Government of lifting the ban on the use of Twitter in Nigeria as a further demonstration of its appetite to ‘suppress’ constitutionally guaranteed rights of citizens in Nigeria, IgbereTV reports.
The caucus, in a statement on Friday by the Minority Leader, Ndudi Elumelu, held that freedom of speech and opinion by Nigerians, including expressing such through social media tools like Twitter, were clearly guaranteed in the 1999 Constitution (as amended) and cannot be subjected to partisan approval or regulation under a democratic rule.
“That is why at the wake of the ban on the use of Twitter in Nigeria in June 2021, the Minority Caucus in the House of Representatives forcefully condemned the decision as a provocative, obnoxious, and unjustifiable clampdown on the rights of Nigerians which also showed the APC government’s intolerance and aversion to the views, opinions, and aspirations of Nigerian citizens, especially the youths on matters of state,” Elumelu stated.
