The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has vehemently rejected what it has termed the unwarranted suspension of the social media platform, Twitter, by the President Muhammadu Buhari-led Federal Government.
According to the opposition party, the Federal Government’s suspension of Twitter is draconian action and a slide towards a fascist regime in the country.
The party in a communique on Friday asserted that the suspension of Twitter is a vexatious, condemnable, and barbaric move to muzzle Nigerians, particularly the youths, ostensibly to prevent them from holding the overtly corrupt, vindictive, and divisive Buhari administration accountable for its atrocities, including human right violations, patronizing of terrorists and outright suppressive acts against innocent Nigerians.
“Our party is appalled that the Federal Government could exhibit such primitive intolerance and power intoxication because the social media giant demonstrated international best practices in not allowing the Buhari presidency to use Twitter as a platform to propagate and spread the Buhari administration’s hatred towards Nigerians.
“The PDP insists that rather than being a platform for activities that are capable of undermining Nigeria’s corporate existence, as claimed by the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, Nigerians, particularly the youths, have been using the social media platform, largely, for activities that promote unity, as well as social, economic and commercial interaction in our country.
“Our party notes that Mr. Lai Mohammed, in his statement, failed to cite an example of where Nigerians used Twitter as a platform to promote acts that are capable of undermining Nigeria’s corporate existence as he claimed.
“Of course, the failure to give any such instance, confirms that the Federal Government is only out to victimize Nigerians,” the opposition party stated.
PDP said the Buhari Presidency and the All Progressives Congress (APC) administration are only afraid of Nigerians on Twitter because of “their evil machinations for which they dread the Nigerian youths”.
While arguing that freedom of speech is firmly guaranteed in the Nigerian constitution, the PDP asked the Buhari administration to be ready to face Nigerians over what the party termed “its misrule”.
“In the case of any infringement, our nation has adequate extant laws to deal with such and not this move to gag the people.
“The PDP, therefore, charges President Buhari to end this assault against Nigerians by immediately and unconditionally rescinding its decision to ban Twitter, as such amounts to pushing our citizens to the wall.
“After all, it was the same Twitter that provided President Buhari and the APC the platform to campaign in 2015 and 2019.
“It is also on record that President Buhari would not be the first President in the world whose tweet would be deleted.
“When it happened to former US President Donald Trump, he was not known to have deployed any act coercion against Twitter,” PDP noted.
The party invited President Buhari to halt what it calls an ‘international shame’ by rescinding the decision.
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