Inspite of the existing order by the Federal Government making it illegal for Nigerians to post or visit the microblogging site, Twitter, Kaduna State Governor, Malam Nasir El-Rufai, on Sunday, tweeted.
Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, SAN, had directed the Director of Public Prosecution of the Federation to “swing into action and commence in earnest the process of prosecution of violators of the Federal Government de-activation of operations of Twitter in Nigeria”.
Though mobile operators have blocked Twitter customers in the country from using the platform, many Nigerians have switched to the use of Virtual Private Networks to bypass the blockage.
El-Rufai seemed to have joined the list of Nigerians using VPNs on Sunday as he tweeted a story link at exactly 09:37pm. “Based Nigeria: African country teaches US lesson in how to handle Big Tech tyranny,” the post read.
The Kaduna governor’s tweet attracted knocks from some Nigerians, including ex-presidential aide, Reno Omokri, who called on Malami to prosecute el-Rufai for flouting the Twitter ban.
“Dear @MalamiSAN, @elrufai tweeted this 20 minutes ago in violation of your #TwitterBan. If you do not start your arrest and prosecution with him, then you must admit that you are a failure and a man who does not keep to his word,” he wrote.
Also, a tweep, @naphtali_noah tweeted, “Laws are for the poor citizens in Nigeria.”
“el-Rufai can’t do without Twitter,” @Pugomike1 mocked.