Minister of Information, Alhaji Lai Mohammed has arrived at the National Assembly complex to meet with the House of Representatives joint Committee on Information, ICT, and Judiciary.
Lai Mohammed arrived at the National Assembly shortly after being named as the leader of the Federal Government Team to discuss with twitter over the indefinite suspension of the social media microblogger.
The joint Committee is Investigating the circumstances that led to the ban of Twitter in early June.
It will be recalled that the federal government recently suspended Twitter operations in the country. The banning may not be unconnected with the deletion of president Muhammadu Buhari’s most popular tweet, “we will talk to them in the language that they understand.”
The House of Assembly stepped into the matter following public outcry over the development.
At the time of filing this report, the minister is before the House Committee on ICT and Judiciary .
He told the House of Representatives that the government decided to ban the operations of twitter in Nigeria because it was promoting instability and act of terrorism in the country.
The Minister said despite repeated reminders, twitter continued to provide separatist groups the platform to promote terrorism in the country.
He said the decision of the government was supported by the position of section 45 of the 1999 constitution, the Company and Allied Matters Act and also the anti-terrorism act among others.
He said twitter also provided IPOB, an organization that was banned by the Court in Nigeria, the platform to spread hate news and order the killing of soldiers, policemen and burning public institutions.
On the issue of personal liberty, he explained that personal liberty can always be suspended when the rights of others are at stake.
