The Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF), Abubakar Malami, has defied the President Muhammadu Buhari’s directive suspending activities of Twitter in Nigeria.
Nigerian government had on Friday announced the suspension of microblogging and social networking service, Twitter, in the country after the App deleted a controversial comment made by President Buhari, in which he made reference to the Nigerian Civil War, which many Nigerians described as distasteful.
Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed made the announcement during a press conference.
He cited the persistent use of the platform for activities capable of undermining Nigeria’s corporate existence.
Also, Abubakar Malami (SAN) declared that any Nigerian still making use of the banned platform would be arrested and prosecuted by the government.
The Kaduna state governor, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, a staunch supporter of the present regime, also tweeted on Sunday despite the ban.
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Amidst the public outcry and criticism that followed the government’s decision, Malami had on Saturday directed the Director of Public Prosecutions in his office to begin the process of prosecuting violators of the government suspension order.
Despite his threat, many Nigerians have been using Virtual Private Networks to access Twitter.
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In a post on his verified Facebook page on Tuesday, the Attorney General posted a screenshot from the Twitter app showing his account has been deleted.
“My Twitter account deactivated,” he wrote.
He logged into Twitter and deactivated his account to show solidarity with the Federal Government which had suspended the social media platform last Friday.
It, however, remains unclear how Malami was able to log into his account since the Twitter URL has been suspended by all Internet Service Providers in the country.
However, checks by Newsflash Nigeria showed that a Twitter account can’t be deactivated unless you have access to the app, meaning Malami must have logged in to deactivate it.
Malami’s post received over 1,100 comments about 40 minutes later with many of his Facebook followers asking him how he accessed Twitter without using VPN.
Akintunde Babatunde wrote, “How were you able to deactivate Twitter without VPN? You should be arrested.”
Shoyombo Adebisi KingDavid wrote, “Can you explain how you did that without first logging in?”
“This is evidence that you logged into Twitter today via VPN to deactivate your account which is punishable under your unlawful law. Let us see how you will prosecute others without throwing yourself in jail,” Roy Ekwueme wrote.
