Govs Seyi Makinde, Samuel Ortom, 3 others use Twitter despite ban on pro-terrorism platform

*Twitter ban illegal, Benue Gov dares FG

*They are traitors bound to fail – Patriots

By KEMI KASUMU

If the report about five of Nigeria’s 36 state governors calling the bluff of Federal Government’s decision to ban Twitter is true, it means faces of some betrayals in positions are beginning to unveil, according to some patriots.

They believe that Twitter, a stranger in the land supporting insecurity in the country to the detriment of the incident citizens, is a common enemy to all that is Nigerian.

Twitter is an American social media networking platform conniving terrorist Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) to collapse both the Nigeria and its government and for which the government took action against it, maintaining that it will not sir back and slow any social media destabilize its country.

This was coming on the heels of a media report, precisely in Royal News dated 11 June 2021 that many prominent Nigerians have continued to defy the ban on microblogging and social media platform, Twitter, despite the threat by the Nigerian government to prosecute Nigerians still posting or using the site.

Penultimate Friday 4 June 2021, President Muhammadu Buhari-led Federal Government announced the indefinite suspension of Twitter’s operations in Nigeria over what it termed, “the persistent use of the platform for activities that are capable of undermining Nigeria’s corporate existence.”

The suspension came days after Twitter deleted a controversial tweet by Buhari where he made reference to the 1967 civil war as more reasons those drumming the beat of war over unjustifiable ground should desist.

The Twitter misdoing became more glaring as it was clear that while it delete President Buhari’s pro-peaceful Nigeria tweets, it allowed the destructive and war inciting tweets of IPOB and it’s leader Nnamdi Kanu, who have been killing security officers and setting police stations on fire in the South East, to continue to trend.

Amid the public outcry and criticism that greeted the government’s Twitter suspension, the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), Malam Abubakar Malami (SAN) on Saturday 5 Jun ordered the prosecution of violators of the ban.

Nigerians had immediately opted for Virtual Private Networks (VPN) in a bid to access the platform, daring the police to arrest them and prosecute them.

VPN, a key path for digital anonymity, has enabled Nigeria to trend in different parts of the world.

Interestingly, Royal News said, some governors have been using VPN to access Twitter. Among those yet to comply with Buhari’s order are the Governor of Oyo State, Seyi Makinde, Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue State, Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State, Ondo State Governor, Rotimi Akeredolu, and Governor of Kaduna State, Nasir el-Rufai.

Although some governors, who were active before the suspension have complied with the directive, the accounts of others who rarely use the platform have remained dormant as usual.

Governor Makinde had, while calling on the government to rescind the decision, said many would be rendered jobless. Makinde however did not tell how on Twitter, a business organisation which that has raked billions from Nigerian subscribers in the soil of Nigeria without having any commitment to the country either by registration with its Corporate Affairs Commission or payment of tax, would lead to jobless or any economic problem.

He counselled Buhari not to hamper the operations of thousands of businesses and services, maintaining that the ban is capable of affecting investors’ confidence in the country, while still failing repeatedly to tell how a network company can possibly be called an investment when it operates with major intent to destabilize its country of operations.

He, however, called for due consideration of the Government due to the implications of its action.

Lending his voice to condemn the ban, Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue State tweeting via his official handle, said the ban was illegal.

According to him, it is also an ill-advised move to divert the attention of Nigerians from the FG’s failure to tackle insecurity in parts of the country.

He noted that the ban amounts to suppression of fundamental human rights and gagging of social media.

Both Ortom and Makinde are opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governors in Nigeria.

Similarly, El-Rufai, a leading member of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, tweeted despite the existing order by the Federal Government.

El-Rufai used the banned social media platform to tweet what seems like support for the Federal Government, saying, “Based Nigeria: African country teaches US lesson in how to handle Big Tech tyranny — RT