A former presidential aspirant in the All Progressives Congress (APC) Adamu Garba on Thursday advocated that Nigerian authorities should boot Twitter out of the country.
His comments followed a bold move by the social media giant on Wednesday which deleted statements made by President Muhammadu Buhari concerning the security challenges in the country.
The controversial part of Buhari’s tweets on Tuesday had read, “Many of those misbehaving today are too young to be aware of the destruction and loss of lives that occurred during the Nigerian Civil War. Those of us in the fields for 30 months, who went through the war, will treat them in the language they understand.”
Twitter said it violated its policy.
Mr Adamu’s comments came amid rumour that the government could move speedily to check the powers of social media in the country.
Known for being vocal in supporting the president, Adamu tweeted, “Twitter has no right to infuse into our local political affairs. It’s a company not a government.
“By removing our democratically elected President’s speech to the people of Nigeria, Twitter need to shut down from Nigerian internet space. Twitter need to get out of Nigeria.”
Adamu had last year sued Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey for allegedly interfering in Nigeria’s domestic affairs after the social media company made an emoji in support of the #EndSARS protest. He later withdrew the charges.
Minister of information and culture Lai Mohammed accused Twitter of double standards, saying it does not delete inciteful tweets by activist Sunday Igboho and leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra Nnamdi Kanu.
