The Federal Government last Friday suspended the operations of micro blogging platform Twitter barely two days after the social media platform deleted a tweet by the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), which many Nigerians believed was repugnant.
The Buhari regime subsequently came under huge criticism from several rights groups across the world for restricting freedom speech.
Amidst the public grumblings and criticism that followed the government’s decision, the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, on Saturday directed the Director of Public Prosecution in his office to begin the process of prosecuting violators and offenders of the government’s suspension order.
Bluebloodz.com has been notified that Despite the ban, many Nigerians have been using VPN – Virtual Private Networks to access Twitter, and this move has further angered the president Buhari’s government.
Also, there were indications on Monday that the police were confused on how to handle Nigerians who were still using Twitter despite the Federal Government’s suspension of its operations in Nigeria.
Multiple sources in the police headquarters in Abuja on Monday told punch correspondents that the police authorities were in a dilemma on how to enforce Malami’s directive.
According to punch, One of the sources, who is a senior police officer, said,
“Honestly, it is not something the police authorities will want to dabble into. Do you expect the police to begin to arrest these prominent Nigerians who you have mentioned because they are using Twitter?
You know that policemen are already the ‘whipping boys’ of the Nigerian society always. Do you expect us to add this to our burden?”
“In any case, it is not the police alone that can arrest offenders. For instance, are officials of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps not empowered to arrest?”
Another police officer confided in another punch correspondent hinted that the police authorities were not favourably disposed to being involved in the enforcement of the suspension, saying the Office of the AGF would do so.
Meanwhile, the Force Public Relations Officer, Frank Mba, a Commissioner of Police, has not yet responded several attempts to speak with him via phone call.
Malami’s spokesman, Umar Gwandu, also has not respond to enquiries as regards the issue on ground