A civil society group, Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project, SERAP, has dragged the federal government to ECOWAS Community Court of Justice in Abuja over government’s ban on use of Twitter in Nigeria.
SERAP was joined by 176 Nigerians who felt aggrieved by the action of the government.
The suit No ECW/CCJ/APP/23/21 was filed on Tuesday by human rights activist, Mr. Femi Falana, on behalf of SERAP.
The group claimed that the suspension of Twitter was “aimed at intimidating and stopping Nigerians from using Twitter and other social media platforms to assess government policies, expose corruption, and criticize acts of official impunity by the agents of the Federal Government.”
The group and the aggrieved Nigerians, in the suit, sought an order of interim injunction to restrain the federal government “from implementing its suspension of Twitter in Nigeria, and subjecting anyone including media houses, broadcast stations using Twitter in Nigeria, to harassment, intimidation, arrest and criminal prosecution, pending the hearing and determination of the substantive suit.”
SERAP and the Nigerians who filed the suit said: “If this application is not urgently granted, the federal government will continue to arbitrarily suspend Twitter and threaten to impose criminal and other sanctions on Nigerians, telecommunication companies, media houses, broadcast stations and other people using Twitter in Nigeria, the perpetual order sought in this suit might be rendered nugatory.”
