On a day the ECOWAS Court of Justice ruled that the ban of popular micro-blogging social media website, Twitter, by the Federal Government was unlawful, the site itself suffered a massive shutdown worldwide.
Boasting of over 200 million global users, there were reports of inaccessibility by many on Thursday.
At about 1:30 pm on Thursday, Downdetector, an online platform that provides real-time information about the status of websites and services, reported that there had been a spike in reports of Twitter shut down.
The court of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) ruled on Thursday that the ban by the President Muhammadu Buhari administration was unlawful and a violation the fundamental human rights of Malcolm Omirhobo, who filed the suit.
Omirhobo explained that the restriction, removed on January 13, 2022, limit Nigerians’ freedom of expression and association.
Malcolm’s suit was merged with that of Social Economic Rights & Accountability Project (SERAP) and 12 others.
The government had said Twitter’s presence in Nigeria was a threat to the country’s security, even though many believed that the ban was because Twitter deleted one of his tweet for been inappropriate and preached violence.
Buhari had cited the bloody civil war as an example of what could be the fate of unknown gunmen in the South-East zone. Some Nigerians reported the alleged offensive tweet to Twitter, which deleted it.
According to the ECOWAS court, the suspension of the operations of Twitter violates the rights of SERAP and 176 concerned Nigerians to the enjoyment of freedom of expression, access to information and the media, and the right to fair hearing.
In his reaction, SERAP lawyer and Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Mr. Femi Falana said, “We commend the ECOWAS Court for the landmark judgment in the case of SERAP v Federal Republic of Nigeria in which the Judges unanimously upheld the human rights of community citizens to freedom of expression, and access to information. Even though the Court had granted an interim order of injunction last year which restrained the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Abubakar Malami SAN from prosecuting Nigerians who defied the Twitter ban, SERAP deserves special commendation for pursuing the matter to a logical conclusion.
“Freedom of expression is a fundamental human right and the full enjoyment of this right is central to achieving individual freedom and to developing democracy. It is not only the cornerstone of democracy, but indispensable to a thriving civil society.
“With the latest decision of the Court to declare the suspension of Twitter in Nigeria illegal it is hoped that the Heads of State and Governments of the member states of the Economic Community of West African States will henceforth respect and uphold the human right of community to freedom of expression guaranteed by Article 9 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights.”
