The Attorney-General and the Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, on Monday, announced the deactivation of his Twitter account.
“My Twitter account deactivated,” the minister captioned a screenshot of his Twitter deactivation page in a Facebook post.
Twitter users under the post questioned the minister how he accessed his Twitter page despite the ban. Others criticised Mr Malami for alleged violation of their constitutional rights.
His action followed the indefinite suspension of Twitter operations in Nigeria by the federal government last week over allegations that the company was a threat to Nigeria’s “corporate existence.”
The government ordered telecommunication companies to block their subscribers from accessing the site, an order the internet service providers complied with shortly after.
Pressed by the urge to bypass the government’s controversial order, Nigerians began to download Virtual Private Network, a software that allows internet users to change their browsing location.
Mr Malami thereafter released a statement saying defaulters would be charged to court, an argument lawyers faulted, saying unless the directive was codified, it was flat before the law.
When asked what law violators would be charged with, Mr Malami’s office said “federal government law.”
The Nigerian Broadcasting Commission (NBC) has also ordered broadcast stations to deactivate their Twitter accounts, an order that has been heavily criticised.
Mr Malami has now joined First Lady Aisha Buhari in the deactivation of Twitter accounts.