…FG Hasn’t Lifted Twitter Ban, Says Minister
The Minister of State for Labour and Employment, and a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Festus Keyamo, has faulted the judicial panel of inquiry set up to investigate cases of police brutality and SARS-related abuses across the country.
Responding to a question about the position of the government specifically regarding a leaked report by the Lagos judicial panel, the human rights lawyer described the panel as illegal.
“I will not answer this question as a sitting minister,” he said on Channels TV’s Sunday Politics. “I will answer this question as a Senior Advocate of Nigeria and so, I am entitled to my own opinion. This is not the Federal Government’s position.
“For me, that panel was an illegal panel”.
His comments come days after the leaked report by the panel indicted the operatives of the Nigerian Army and Police, saying they indeed shot at unarmed protesters.
While the report has yet to be officially released, days later, the panel submitted its findings to Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu.
One of the reports was on claims of police brutality while the other was on the shooting in the Lekki area of Lagos State on October 20, 2020.
The Nigerian army had, however, denied shooting live rounds at protesters, telling the judicial panel that only blanks were used.
As part of efforts to further get to the root of the matter, Governor Sanwo-Olu on Monday, set up a four-member committee led by Lagos State Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Mr. Moyosore Onigbanjo (SAN) to raise a White Paper on the reports submitted by the judicial panel.
Keyamo’s comments come two days before the committee is expected to submit its recommendations to the National Economic Council (NEC) for discussion and possible implementation.
Meanwhile, Keyamo, says the dialogue to lift the ban on Twitter is in progress with few conditions yet to be met.
The operation of the microblogging platform in Nigeria was suspended on June 4, two days after a controversial tweet from President Muhammadu Buhari was deleted by Twitter. The Nigerian government, however, accused Twitter of sponsoring dissent in the country.
In his explanation, the minister, who is part of the cabinet members involved in the dialogue with Twitter, disclosed that Twitter has agreed to all the Nigerian government’s conditions but singled out “timelines” as the only hiccup.
“It was Twitter, just to put it in context, that reached out to the federal government to say they want to know what they can do to straighten up the relationship with the federal government. And so we’ve gone far. I may not at this forum, let out a lot, but we give them a lot of conditions (and) they have agreed to all those conditions. What is left now are the timelines to fulfill those conditions.
“Once those timelines come and they fulfill those conditions, Twitter will be back to business in Nigeria. They know exactly what we want. And these are things that are extremely altruistic,” Mr Keyamo said.
He said the social media giant has agreed to pay taxes to the Nigerian government as well as setting up a physical office in Nigeria where users can take their complaints to.
Twitter had earlier stirred a debate in Nigeria when it announced its decision to set up its regional headquarters in Ghana rather than Nigeria where it enjoys more patronage.
