A chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Engr. Emmanuel Agbo has called on the CEO of Twitter Jack Dorsey to use the occasion of his visit to Nigeria to reassure Nigerians that opposition Twitter handles are safe in the wake of increasing attacks by the Muhammadu Buhari regime on dissenting voices in the social media.
Agbo who is the Deputy National Secretary of the leading opposition party in a statement on Saturday noted that it was no longer news that the Nigerian Government was working very hard to spy on journalists, activists, media houses and opposition members all in a bid to target them for persecution.
“We have seen the case of activist Aisha Yesufu who has had her Twitter account locked severally and recently, pro-government Twitter handles were calling for the execution of human rights champion Prof. Chidi Odinkalu, journalist Ahmad Salkida among others.
“There have also been reports that the Nigerian military procured a forensic technology designed to extract information from phones and computers. The report stated that two companies – Israel-based Cellebrite and US-based Access Data – that produce and market such technologies used by security forces to monitor and interrogate journalists, were already operating in Nigeria.
“What this means is that the current government is willing to go any lengths to target opposition voices even if it means compromising social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook.
“It is instructive that Twitter continues to serve as a platform to project the voices of many Nigerians who seek accountability from their government. We hope that it will continue to remain this way without the fear of waking up one day to hear that opposition Twitter accounts were spied on or shut down at the request of the Nigerian government or their agents”, Agbo said.