Twitter Ban: Malami Defies Own Order Logs Into Twitter Via VPN

Twitter Ban: Malami Defies Own Order Logs Into Twitter Via VPN

Malami, the Attorney-General of the Federation, Tuesday logged into his Twitter account via a Virtual Private Network to deactivate his account.

iexclusive News Nigeria reports that Abubakar Malami announced the deactivation of his Twitter account in a Facebook post on Tuesday.

The action of Malami was evidently to show solidarity with the Federal Government on its stance banning the operations of the microblog in Nigeria.

Malami had on Saturday threatened to prosecute Nigerians who are still using VPNs to access Twitter.

With all the ISPs deactivating connection to Twitter, the Minister of Justice defied his own order by logging into the microblogging platform to deactivate his account.

A look at the picture posted by Malami on his Facebook page shows that he logged into his Twitter account using a VPN, as spotted on the top right corner of the image.

Nigerians who commented on his post, questioned how Malami got access to his microblog account in the first place since the platform’s access link has been deactivated by the ISPs.

Roy Ekwueme: “This is an evidence that you logged in Twitter today via VPN to deactivate your account which is punishable under your unlawful law. Let’s see how you will prosecute others without throwing yourself in jail.”

“Attorney general of nonsense and minister of injustice”

Idoko Isaac Junior said: “Why deactivate? Just delete it. That’s all. Deactivation means you want to come back later when the storm is over. Just delete in solidarity to yourself as the PRESIDENCY.”

Joseph-church Yabayanze wrote: “Or better still, is twitter the myriad of problems we are facing in Nigeria? You have turned your office into mediocrity. You will be remembered as the first incompetent Attorney General Nigeria ever had.”

Chiemeka Akwarandu said: “And so what, Do you think you have enough Goodwill for Nigerians to follow you and do same? The Answer is Capital No.”

Akintunde O. Babatunde wrote: “How are you able to deactivate Twitter without VPN? You should be arrested.”

The Federal Government announced the suspension of the microblog on Friday, two days after the microblogging site deleted a tweet of President Muhammadu Buhari after it was deemed to have “violated the Twitter rules”.

According to a statement by Lai Mohammed, Minister of Information and Culture on Friday, the ban was placed on the microblog due to the “persistent use” of the platform in purportedly encouraging activities that “undermines Nigeria’s corporate existence”.