#TwitterBan: Kayode Ajulo faults AGF on threat to prosecute violators

Lawyer and social rights activist, Kayode Ajulo, has declared that the threat by the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, to prosecute violators of the federal government ban on the use of Twitter in Nigeria runs against the provisions of the constitution.

In a statement on Sunday, Ajulo said that the provisions of Section 36(12) of the 1999 Constitution are clear to the effect that no one shall be prosecuted for an offence not known to law.

The Federal Government of Nigeria on Friday, 4th June, 2021 suspended the operation of the micro-blogging site, Twitter, in Nigeria after the latter deleted a post by President Muhammadu Buhari where he threatened to deal with those destroying INEC facilitities in the South-East the way federal troops dealt with Biafrans during the Civil War.

After receiving reports that some Nigerians were finding a way round the ban to still manage to use the site, Malami issued a directive to prosecute those found violating the government’s directive.

But Ajulo said Nigerian democracy is a constitutional democracy based on the rule of law, and that the constitution is the barometer with which government’s actions are measured.

“For the sake of emphasis and for avoidance of doubt, Section 36 (12) provides as follows: ‘Subject as otherwise provided by this constitution, a person shall not be convicted of a criminal offence unless that offence is defined and the penalty therefore is prescribed in a written law, and in this subsection, a written law refers to an Act of the National Assembly or a Law of a State, any subsidiary legislation or instrument under the provisions of a law.’”

He cited the cases of Aoko Vs. Fagbemi (1961) 1 All NLR 400; and A.G.F. Vs. Isong (1986) 1QLRN 75.

“I have carefully spectated the contents of our various penal laws, and nowhere is a citizen of the country prohibited from receiving or disseminating information which is a right guaranteed under Section 39 of the constitution.”

He said the statement credited to the AGF “is, with respect, inchoate as the position of law is clear and unambiguous and whatever directive issued for the prosecution of violators of the ban of twitter blog in Nigeria runs contrary to the letters and the spirit of the constitution.”