Tag: Ban

  • Nigeria could ban motorbikes in bid to stop terrorist raids

    Nigeria could ban motorbikes in bid to stop terrorist raids

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    Despite a huge backlash, officials said the nationwide ban was a necessary sacrifice to deal with a proliferation of terrorist groups and armed gangs that threaten to overwhelm the giant West African country.

    In recent years, Nigeria’s security services have struggled to deal with armed bandits staging hundreds of attacks in the northwest of the country. This adds to the decades-old fight against al-Qaeda linked jihadist groups in the northeast.

    The Islamic State in West Africa Province (ISWAP), a splinter group of Boko Haram, attacked a prison in Abuja earlier this month and freed more than 800 inmates. It is one of only a few times that terrorists have attacked Nigeria’s capital city – in a worrying sign that security forces have failed to keep marauding jihadists at bay.

    In March, armed bandits attacked a train travelling from Abuja to the northwestern Kaduna State, taking hundreds of passengers captive. Reports suggest that the bandits cooperated with Boko Haram in what officials have called “an unholy handshake”. Kidnapping for ransom has snowballed into a widespread security threat in the region as hundreds of children and babies have been taken from schools in Kaduna State over the last year.

    The nationwide ban is the latest in a string of failed attempts by the government to restore peace and security to the troubled nation.

    In 2017, officials earmarked $1 billion from Nigeria’s vast oil wealth to buy weapons and security equipment to fight terrorists in the northeast. The government bought six A-29 Super Tucano planes for $593 million from the US last year, in a controversial deal that critics said would not address the root causes of jihadism and insecurity.

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  • Nigeria’s Twitter ban unlawful — WAfrican court

    Nigeria’s Twitter ban unlawful — WAfrican court

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    Nigeria’s Twitter ban unlawful — WAfrican court

    In this file photo illustration taken on Aug. 10, 2020, a Twitter logo is displayed on a mobile phone in Arlington, Virginia. A seven-month ban on Twitter use in Nigeria was unlawful, according to a court ruling by West Africa’s regional bloc ECOWAS seen by Agence France-Presse on Thursday (Friday in Manila). AFP PHOTO

    Lagos, Nigeria: A seven-month ban on Twitter use in Nigeria was unlawful, according to a court ruling by West Africa’s regional bloc ECOWAS seen by Agence France-Presse (AFP) on Thursday (Friday in Manila).

    The Abuja government suspended Twitter in June last year after the social media giant deleted a tweet by President Muhammadu Buhari. It lifted the ban in January.

    The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) court issued its ruling following a suit brought by a Nigerian NGO called the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) and rights campaigners.

    In a summing-up statement sent to AFP the court said the ban, which drew international approbrium, was unlawful, infringed freedom of expression and access to media, and ran counter to provisions both of the African Charter and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

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    In declaring the ban unlawful the court also ordered the Nigerian authorities never to repeat it.

    Abuja lifted the suspension after talks with Twitter representatives but laid down conditions, including Twitter registering its operations in Nigeria, Africa’s largest economy.

    With three-quarters of Nigeria’s population of 200 million aged under 24 the country is hyper-connected to social media.

    The ban shocked many in Nigeria, given Twitter’s major role in political discourse, as evidenced by the #BringBackOurGirls hashtag deployed after Boko Haram extremists kidnapped nearly 300 schoolgirls in 2014.

    Young activists also turned to Twitter to organize the #EndSARS protests against police brutality that eventually grew into the largest demonstrations in Nigeria’s modern history before they were repressed.

    Around 40 million Nigerians, or around 20 percent of the population, have a Twitter account.

    Abuja initially announced an unlimited ban, accusing the platform of allowing activities it said threatened the country’s existence citing posts by separatist agitators from the country’s southeast, where a civil war five decades ago killed one million people.

    Nigeria’s National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) director general Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi at the time said there were “unscrupulous elements” using Twitter “for subversive purposes and criminal activities, propagating fake news, and polarising Nigerians.”

    The ban came two days after Twitter took down a tweet from President Buhari warning he would take action and treat those users “in the language they understand.”

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  • Nigeria’s Twitter ban is unlawful– ECOWAS Court

    Nigeria’s Twitter ban is unlawful– ECOWAS Court

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    The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Court has declared unlawful the suspension of Twitter by the government of President Muhammadu Buhari, and ordered the administration never to repeat it again.

    This is coming after a suit was filed by the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) and 176 concerned Nigerians, according to Kolawole Oluwadare, SERAP deputy director.

    The Court also stated that the act of suspending the operation of Twitter is unlawful and inconsistent with the provisions of Article 9 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights and Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights both of which Nigeria is a state party.

    “The Buhari administration in suspending the operations of Twitter violates the rights of SERAP and 176 concerned Nigerians to the enjoyment of freedom of expression, access to information and the media, as well as the right to fair hearing, ” the court stated.

    The Court also ordered the Buhari administration to take necessary steps to align its policies and other measures to give effect to the rights and freedoms and to guarantee a non-repetition of the unlawful ban of Twitter.

    Following the deletion of President Buhari’s tweet, Lai Mohammed. the Minister of Information and Culture announced the suspension of Twitter in the country. The government also threatened to arrest and prosecute anyone using Twitter, while the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) asked all broadcast stations to suspend their patronage of Twitter.

    However, in the judgment delivered today, the ECOWAS court declared that it has the jurisdiction to hear the case, and that the case was therefore admissible.

    Read also: Can Elon Musk pull out of Twitter deal?

    The Buhari administration was also ordered by the court to bear the costs of the proceedings and directed the Deputy Chief Registrar to assess the costs accordingly.

    “We commend the ECOWAS Court for the landmark judgment in the case of SERAP v Federal Republic of Nigeria in which the Judges unanimously upheld the human rights of community citizens to freedom of expression, and access to information. Even though the Court had granted an interim order of injunction last year which restrained Abubakar Malami SAN, the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, from prosecuting Nigerians who defied the Twitter ban, SERAP deserves special commendation for pursuing the matter to a logical conclusion,” Femi Falana, SAN SERAP lawyer said.

    The suit which was filed read in part: “if this application is not urgently granted, the Federal Government will continue to arbitrarily suspend Twitter and threaten to impose criminal and other sanctions on Nigerians, telecommunication companies, media houses, broadcast stations and other people using Twitter in Nigeria, the perpetual order sought in this suit might be rendered nugatory.

    “The suspension of Twitter is aimed at intimidating and stopping Nigerians from using Twitter and other social media platforms to assess government policies, expose corruption, and criticize acts of official impunity by the agents of the Federal Government.

    “The free communication of information and ideas about public and political issues between citizens and elected representatives is essential. This implies a free press and other media able to comment on public issues without censor or restraints, and to inform public opinion. The public also has a corresponding right to receive media output.”

    Unrep desktop

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