The ECOWAS Court of Justice in Abuja on Tuesday delivered a landmark ruling as justices restrained President Muhammadu Buhari administration and its agents from arresting or prosecuting Nigerians using Twitter.
The court also protected social media service providers, radio and television broadcast stations and others from prosecution pending the hearing and determination of this suit.
Earlier, the Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, had threatened to arrest and prosecute Nigerians who were using Virtual Private Network to bypass the suspension of Twitter.
Civil Society Organisation, the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project, and 176 concerned Nigerians, however, instituted a suit before the ECOWAS court, arguing that the unlawful suspension of Twitter in Nigeria, criminalisation of Nigerians and other people using Twitter had escalated repression of human rights and unlawfully restricted the rights of Nigerians and other people to freedom of expression, access to information, and media freedom in the country.
Details Later…
