Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami has denied threatening to prosecute Nigerians still tweeting on the microblogging site.
Mr Malami, who had earlier issued the prosecution threat against Nigerians defying the Nigerian government’s ban on Twitter, denied it in an interview with Vanguard newspaper.
His denial came days after he unknowingly exposed himself in a Facebook post which showed he too had bypassed the Twitter ban like many other Nigerians.
“It is within their guaranteed fundamental right to tweet from anywhere in the world. Nigeria, being a democratic nation, cannot stop its citizens from exercising their rights of freedom of expression.
“But our position on Twitter is clear: Anyone, whether individual or corporate institution ‘that enables Twitter’ to circumvent the ban the Federal Government of Nigeria placed on the company, will be prosecuted.” the Vanguard quoted Mr Malami as saying on Thursday.
He added that the statement from his office did not ask the Director of Public Prosecutions to prosecute Nigerians using Twitter or any social media platform to express their view.
“But we are going to use the legal instruments at our disposal to go after those who aid and abet Twitter to continue to threaten our corporate existence as a nation.
“It is clear from the barrage of insinuations and falsehood being orchestrated by some Nigerians and those trying to change the clear position of the Government of Nigeria to suit their whims and caprices and to whip up sentiments to hoodwink the people, that they are up to some mischievous and sinister games, which the Federal Government will not condone,” Mr Malami also said.