Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue State has defied Federal Government’s order suspending the operations of the microblogging site, Twitter and forbidding Nigerians from accessing it.
The Governor, who joined the growing list of prominent Nigerians defying the suspension, in a tweet on Tuesday, accused the central government of using the ban as a diversionary tactic to take the attention of citizens away from its failure to handle the growing insecurity in the country.
According to him, the ban is illegal and a suppression of the fundamental human rights of Nigerians.
Ortom tweeted: “The ban on Twitter is not only illegal, but it is also an ill-advised move to divert the attention of Nigerians from the FG’s failure to tackle insecurity in parts of the country.
“It amounts to suppression of fundamental human rights and gagging of social media.”
The governor’s tweet is coming on the heels of similar disregard for the suspension by other prominent Nigerians. They include the General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), Pastor Enoch Adeboye, the General Superintendent of the Deeper Christian Life Ministry (DCLM), Pastor William Kumuyi, the Senior Pastor of the Daystar Christian Centre, Lagos, Nigeria, Pastor Sam Adeyemi; the General Overseer of Omega Fire Ministries International, Apostle Johnson Suleiman; Oyo State Governor, Seyi Makinde; former Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose; former Minister of Education, Oby Ezekwesili; and the representative of Kogi West Senatorial District in the Eighth National Assembly, Senator Dino Melaye, among others.
Kaduna State Governor, Nasir el-Rufai, a staunch ally of President Muhammadu Buhari, had also tweeted on Sunday, two days after the suspension order.
Ortom and others have insisted on the continue use of Twitter services despite a directive by the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami for violators of the order to be arrested and prosecuted.
NaijaNewsNow reports that the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed announced the indefinite suspension of Twitter operations in the country of Friday, claiming that the microblogging site services were being used for subversive purposes against the corporate existence of the country.
