The Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, SAN, has ordered the Director of Public Prosecution of the Federation (DPPF) to immediately prosecute Nigerians contravening the Federal Government’s ban on twitter operations.
He said the DPPF should liaise with the Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy, the National Communications Commission (NCC) and other relevant government agencies to ensure “speedy prosecution without further delay.” Are there legal basis for such action?
Chijioke Okoli, SAN: “I don’t want to believe that the Attorney-General made such declaration which prima facie is offensive to the most basic axioms of constitutional law and criminal jurisprudence. That is, you cannot be charged, much less punished, for an action which is not clearly defined in a written law as a criminal offence.
“I am not aware that the National Assembly has passed any law criminalizing usage of Twitter or even providing a platform for its usage by third parties. It’s even doubtful that the purported proclamation is of any legally decisive effect in the realm of civil law.
“In a democracy, which Nigeria purports to be, civil rights and obligations of the citizens are determinable by law and due process, but not by the whims and caprices of any individual no matter how powerful; not even the President. Beyond the law, the whole unfortunate chain of events which brought us to this sorry pass bring into brutally sharp focus the poor quality mindset which characterize governance in Nigeria. We are in global village and there are minimum standards below which even a country or its leaders would be scolded or punished by concerned section of the international community including powerful global information flow controllers like Twitter and Facebook.
“We saw it with Donald Trump even as a sitting President of the most powerful nation on earth. This is even more so for Nigeria which under its present leadership has become a huge embarrassment to humanity, especially the black race; mortgage of the country and its unborn generations to the Chinese by contracting seemingly unserviceable loans, enablement of terrorist to overrun a good percentage of the territories, mindless nepotism and fast tracking state failure to total state collapse. Some Western experts and the Criminal Investigation Agency (CIA) had long predicted the collapse of Nigeria about this time and we all chorused “God forbid.” But PMB came on the scene and despite the enormous goodwill he enjoyed on the commencement of his Presidency in 2015 seems hellbent on the fulfillment of that dire prophecy.”
Joe Nwokedi: “Has he the power to order for arrest and prosecution of offenders of any law in Nigeria? Has the suspension of Twitter and its usage passed as a law in Nigeria? Is it now an enactment or an Act of National Assembly. If Twitter is banned in Nigeria, does that confer a binding effect on the users of Twitter?
“We have had instances where Okada riders were barrred and banned from plying certain routes in some cities in Nigeria; has that made the passengers boarding the said bikes even after the ban liable or culpable?
“If Twitter continues to provide their services to Nigerians inspite of the suspension, let the Nigerian Government prosecute them for the breach if they have the powers to do so. Is the presidency now saying that they have banned Nigerians from using Twitter. There is a huge difference between suspending Twitter operation in Nigeria and banning Nigerians from using Twitter.
“Please, someone should tell the Attorney General and Minister of Justice that he has no power to order for arrest of any Nigerian; power of arrest resides with the Police. He should know the scope, ambit or limit of the powers conferred on his office.”
Malachy Ugwummadu: “Under what Act or Law will the suspected offenders be charged? Our Attorney General of the Federation should familiarise himself with S.36(12) of the 1999 Constitution which renders it impossible for a citizen of Nigeria to be tried for an offence that does not exist as at the time the act was committed.
“Our AGF should concentrate energy in the prosecution and possible conviction of Boko Haram terrorist suspects because we have seen very little of that. He should dissipate more energy in effectively prosecuting all corruption cases to keep faith with S.16(a) of the 1999 Constitution which enjoins the Government of Nigeria to abolish all forms of corruption and abuse of power.
“He should fast track the prosecution and convictions of politically exposed and high profile cases, scattered all across the federal courts on sundry charges of corruption. He should concrete his efforts on the numerous and abandoned cases of economic sabotage etc. He should encourage the states Attorneys General to expedite action on the prosecution of kidnappers, bandits and robbers and ritualists. But more importantly, he should leave the Twitter distraction and fight for the protection and promotion of the fundamental rights of Nigerians.”
Chief Mike Ozekhome, SAN: “How I wish that Malami’s APC government, has displayed such alacrity and sense of urgency on the grave insecurity challenges of the country; the parlous economy and the mounting corruption ravaging our land. Malami did this with Lai Mohammed apparently being aware that many knowledgeable Nigerians had started to use different Virtual Private Networks (VPN) to clearly bypass the blockage.
“This government must be ready to build thousands of prisons across all the nooks and cranies of Nigeria so as to accommodate the deluge of ‘erring’ Nigerians.
“This government does not appear to have weighed carefully the serious implications of its actions and the likely ricochetting effects. Many Nigerians run global businesses with links and business partners across the world. They carry on business using the social media, Twitter. Secondly, many Nigerians, especially the youths who have been rendered destitute by this thus anti-masses government. They rely heavily on legitimate income realised from the platorm through advertisement of their products and services and act on behalf of their not so ICT-compliant clients who desire to reach out to the world.
“Suspending Twitter is akin to what this government did when coming to power by thoughtlessly banning Nigerians from operating their domiciary foreign accounts, a kneel-jerk action. The naira has never recovered from this shock treatment. Perhaps, more important is that the ban outrightly denies citizens of their individual and collective right to freedom of speech and right to freedom of expression and the press, contrary to section 39 of the Constitution. The cumulative effect of these negative act is a serious blight on Nigeria’s image both at home and abroad.”