Government propagandist, Lai Mohammed, says Twitter rejected several of its request to ban Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the Indigenous People Of Biafra (IPOB) from its platform.
Mr Mohammed, weeks ago announced the indefinite suspension of the micro-blogging site, citing national security. This was after he accused the social networking site of double standard after it deleted a tweet, of President Muhammadu Buhari, Nigerian tweeps deemed genocidal while flagging it.
Featuring on Politics Nationwide, a Radio Nigeria call-in programme in Abuja, the minister said it was unfair to claim the federal government banned Twitter because it deleted the genocidal tweet of the president.
He said the government banned Twitter because the social network refused to expunge Nnamdi Kanu who leads Indigenous People Of Biafra (IPOB) whose tweets have also been deleted.
“Twitter has become a platform of choice for a particular separatist promoter,” Mr Mohammed said. “The promoter consistently used the platform to direct his loyalists to kill Nigerian soldiers and policemen, run down INEC offices and destroy all symbols of Nigeria’s sovereignty.
“Every attempt to persuade Twitter to deny its platform to this separatist leader was not taken serious,” he added while blaming the violence and destruction of property recorded in parts of the country during the #EndSARS protests on Twitter and its founder, Jack Dorsey.
