A Federal High Court in Lagos has ordered former Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed, and the Ministry to disclose details of the agreement between the Federal Government and X, the micro-blogging platform, formerly called Twitter.
Recall that in June 2021, the former Minister announced the “indefinite” suspension of Twitter’s operations in the country.
Six months later, the Federal Government approved the lifting of the suspension after giving several conditions to the micro-blogging platform.
Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP), a Civil Society Organisation (CSO) holding the government accountable, then instituted a freedom of information suit marked FHC/L/CS/238/2022.
Delivering judgment in the suit, Nnamdi Dimgba, the Presiding Judge, ordered that the details of the agreement be released to SERAP to assess whether it complied with the exercise of Nigerians’ human rights online.
The judge held that the former minister failed to show the court how disclosing the agreement would be prejudicial to national security, as he had claimed.
The court of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) had in July 2021 ruled that the banning of Twitter by the Nigerian government was “unlawful.”
