By Williams Anuku Abuja
The controversies trailing the recent suspension of Twitter in Nigeria took another dimension on Wednesday as Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina said the judgement delivered by the ECOWAS Court was being studied by the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami.
He was asked to react to the ruling of the ECOWAS Court, while disassociating the presidency from speculations linking it to the transmission of two Bills to the National Assembly, specifically to repeal the Acts establishing the National Broadcasting Commission NBC and the Nigerian Press Council respectively.
His response for suspending the micro-blogging platform, Twitter, went thus, the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, is studying the ruling issued by the ECOWAS Court to the effect that Twitter users cannot be arrested or prosecuted.
He said the AGF would advise the federal government on the next step to take.
The Presidential Media Aide also affirmed that the committee made up of ministers to engage with Twitter has begun to meet.
“The Attorney-General of the Federation is going to study that report and then he’ll advise government on the way forward.
“The committee set up by the President to engage with Twitter is actually holding a meeting about now, or it will hold a meeting this afternoon (Wednesday) towards engaging with Twitter.”
Recall that the ECOWAS Court affirmed that Nigeria lacked powers to ban Twitter users, let alone prosecute anyone on account of its usage.
Since the ban or rather suspension was effected in Nigeria, it has elicited widespread condemnation from various stakeholders.
Recall too that the suspension of Twitter has also been linked to the latest moves to repeal the NBC and NPC Acts, as a way of ensuring proper regulation of the media space in Nigeria.
Adesina rose to the defence of the presidency while fielding questions from State House Correspondents after the weekly meeting of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) on Wednesday.
Commenting on the bills, Adesina said the initiative is a federal government thing that only the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, was competent to address.
Asked to comment on the issue, he said: “That is not strictly a Presidency thing because the President has nothing to do with that. It’s a government thing and it’s the Minister that can talk about it. So, thank you.”
Adesina equally disclosed that President Muhammadu Buhari has approved that the Second Peer Review Country Self-assessment Report should be done.