#TwitterBan: Reps to begin probe on Tuesday

The House of Representatives will begin investigations on the controversial Twitter ban on Tuesday.

The joint committees on Information, National Orientation, Ethics and Values alongside the National Security, Justice and Commerce, will be organising the investigative hearing.

The House had on June 8 resolved to investigate the ban of the microblogging site by the government.

On June 4, the Nigerian government had through a statement by the Minister of information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, announced the suspension of Twitter from operating.

The ban came a few days after the platform deleted a tweet from the account of President Muhammadu Buhari for violating Twitter rules.

The committees were mandated to summon Mr Mohammed to appear before it.

The House had given the committees 10 days to report back to it. However, the lawmakers embarked on a two-week holiday in the same week and will not resume until June 29.

Meanwhile, last week at the public hearing on a bill to amend the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) Act, the minister for information, Lai Mohammed, called for internet broadcasting to be included in the NBC Act.

“I will want to add, that specifically, internet broadcasting and all online media should be included in this because we have a responsibility to monitor content — including Twitter.” he said.