The Nigerian government has said it was not aware of the controversial tweet by President Muhammadu Buhari last month that was deleted by the microblogging platform.
The Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami and the federal government in a counter-affidavit filed before the Lagos Division of the Federal High Court in response to a suit instituted by a human rights lawyer, Inibehe Effiong, said they were unaware of the tweet.
Joined as first to third respondents in the suit are the AGF, the Minister of Information, and the Federal Government.
“The first and third respondents are not aware of any tweet purportedly emanating from President Muhammadu Buhari which Twitter investigated and found that it violated Twitter rules and that Twitter did not consider it proper to inform the third respondent of such,” read the counter-affidavit deposed to by Ilop Lawrence, a litigant at the Federal Ministry of Justice on behalf of the AGF and FG.
President Buhari had in June tweeted;
The post was massively reported by Nigerians who saw it as inciting and insensitive, hence it was swiftly brought down by Twitter.
Two days after Twitter deleted Buhari’s post, the Nigerian government announced it had banned the microblogging site for allegedly promoting insurrection in the country.
