The Federal Government has reportedly lifted the suspension of Twitter operations in Nigeria after 214 days.
This was made known by the Chairman Technical Committee Nigeria-Twitter Engagement and Director-General National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, CCIE today January 12.
In a statement released, Kashifu said the approval was given following a memo written to the President by Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Prof Isa Ali Ibrahim. According to the statement, Twitter has agreed to the conditions of the Federal government which includes establishing a legal entity in Nigeria during the first quarter of 2022, appointing a designated country representative to interface with Nigerian authorities, complying with applicable tax obligations on its operations under Nigerian law amongst others.
The statement reads
”The Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) directs me to inform the public that President Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR, has approved the lifting of the suspension of Twitter operation in Nigeria effective from 12am tonight, 13th January 2022.
The approval was given following a memo written to the President by the Honourable Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Prof Isa Ali Ibrahim. In the Memo, the Minister updates and requests the President’s approval for the lifting based on the Technical Committee Nigeria-Twitter Engagement’s recommendation.
You may recall that on 5th June 2021, the FGN suspended the operation of Twitter through an announcement made by the Honourable Minister of Information and Culture, Alh Lai Mohammed. Thereafter, the President constituted a seven-man Presidential Committee to engage Twitter Inc. Subsequently, in its wisdom, the Presidential Committee set a 20-member Technical Committee comprising all relevant government agencies. The Technical Committee engaged and worked directly with the Twitter team.
The immediate and remote cause of the suspension was the unceasing use of the platform by some unscrupulous elements for subversive purposes and criminal activities, propagating fake news”
