By Emeka Okafor
Nigerian Government has ordered indefinite suspension of the operations of microblogging and social networking service, Twitter, in the country.
The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, announced the suspension in a statement issued in Abuja on Friday.
This is coming barely a day after the microblogging site deleted President Muhammadu Buhari’s controversial post on Nigerian civil war.
Buhari had tweeted, “Many of those misbehaving today are too young to be aware of the destruction and loss of lives that occurred during the Nigerian Civil War. Those of us in the fields for 30 months, who went through the war, will treat them in the language they understand.”
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Twitter had said the post violated the social networking site’s rules.
But a statement signed by the Special Assistant to The President (Media), Office of the Minister of Information and Culture, Segun Adeyemi, cited the persistent use of the platform for activities that are capable of undermining Nigeria’s corporate existence.
“The Minister said the Federal Government has also directed the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) to immediately commence the process of licensing all OTT and social media operations in Nigeria”, the statement said.