Lai Mohammed, the Minister of information and culture, justified that the federal government decision to ban twitter was the right move by claiming that the microblogging platform was trying to destabilize the country.
On Friday 11th June Lai Mohammed on a live broadcast on ‘Good Morning Nigeria’ a programme on the National Television Authority (NTA) said that Nnmandi Kanu, the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra was using the platform to instigate hate as well as ordering attacks on Police and officers of the Nigerian Army. parrot.com
The minister said that Twitter had become the platform of choice for separatists to carry out their agenda was the most preferred form of contact for separatist to carry out their propaganda and agenda. He said that Twitter was used consistently to promote activities that would lead to the collapse of the country.
He said, “The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) leader, Nnamdi Kanu, who stays comfortably in Europe, had been using Twitter to direct people to attack the symbols of Nigeria’s sovereignty.”
“Kanu used the platform to direct his supporters to attack Policemen, Military men, Barracks, INEC offices, among other government structures.”
“Before its suspension, we made several pleas to them to remove the tweets where Nigeria is described as a zoo where all of us are described as monkeys.”
We also pleaded with Twitter to delete the tweet where he said that if a Nigerian Soldier enters into Biafra, it is death.”
“Twitter, however, said that those tweets did not offend their own rules. It gets out of hand when attacks on Police and Military formations, Police and Army officers became unabated and we said at this point, we will need to suspend their operations,” he said
The Minister also recalled the event of the #endsars movement which he said was caused by the social media platform, Twitter. He blamed the platform for amplifying the unwarranted protest which he said was birthed from a false claim.
