The Minority caucus in the National Assembly has told Nigerians to ignore the ban on twitter by the President Muhammadu Buhari led government.
The Caucus stated this on Wednesday in a statement jointly signed by Senate Minority Leader Enyinnaya Abaribe and Minority Leader of the House of Representatives, Ndudi Elumelu.
The caucus which is made up of the Senate and House of Representatives opposition members said Nigerians should continue the use of the micro blogging platform as they will not be contravening any known laws of the federal republic of Nigeria.
According to the statement:“The Joint Minority Caucus of the Senate and the House of Representatives has met over the ban on Twitter by the All Progressives Congress (APC)-led Federal Government and restates its condemnation of the embargo as draconian and unacceptable.
“The Joint Minority Caucus also dismisses threats by the APC-led government to arrest and prosecute Nigerians using twitter and calls on Nigerians to go ahead and use their twitter as they would not be contravening any law in Nigeria or any international statute.
“The Joint Minority Caucus recognizes the provisions of Articles 19 and 20 of the United Nations Charter on Fundamental Human Rights, which Nigeria is a signatory to, as well as provisions of Sections 39 and 36 (12) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), and notes that by these provisions no one will be violating any law for using twitter in Nigeria.
“In the same vein, the Joint Caucus sympathizes with regional, states, local government as well as members of the international community, whose genuine and constructive activities have been crippled by the prohibition of twitter in Nigeria.
“It also identifies with traditional rulers, who have even found twitter as a means of communicating with the constituents, especially in this era of insecurity in the country.
“The Joint Caucus vehemently berates the APC-led government for abandoning its duty of addressing the serious economic and security problems confronting our nation to rather focus on dissipating energy victimizing Nigerians over their disagreement with Twitter for deleting a post by an individual.
“The Caucus counsels the Federal Government to swallow its pride, accept its misdoing and go and settle whatever issue it has with Twitter instead of this resort to inflicting pains on Nigerians.”
