#Twitterban: Federal Government summons US, UK envoys, others

The Federal Government has summoned the envoys of the United States, United Kingdom, Canada and the European Union in Nigeria over their recent comments on the suspension of microblogging site Twitter in the West African Country.

This was contained in an invitation to journalists issued on Monday morning by the Crisis Monitoring and Public Communications Division of the Nigerian Ministry of Foreign Affairs

“I am directed to inform that following the recent ban on Twitter by the Federal Government and Press Statement issued by some Heads of Diplomatic Missions Accredited to Nigeria on the subject matter, the Honourable Minister of Foreign Affairs, His Excellency, Geoffrey Onyeama has invited the affected Ambassadors to a meeting today at 12 noon.

“The venue is Minister’s Conference Room, 8th Floor.

“You are here invited to cover the Meeting. Thanks for your usual cooperation,” the invite read.

Earlier in a joint statement on Saturday, Canada, EU, UK, US, and the Republic of Ireland had commented that banning systems of expression is not the way forward. “We strongly support the fundamental human right of free expression and access to information as a pillar of democracy in Nigeria as around the world and these rights apply online as well as offline.” their statement had partly read.