Written By David Ugbabe
Some Members of the House of Representatives walked out of the House sitting on Tuesday after Speaker, Femi Gbajabiamila ruled out of order, the leader of the party in the House on the issue of the ban on twitter by the Government.
It was gathered that the joint committees on Communication, Information, Justice and National Security were mandated by the Speaker to investigate the legality of the ban placed on twitter by the Federal Government and report back to the House. However, some of the members which consisted of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) caucus disagreed that waiting for ten days for the committee to report back to the House would amount to the ban remaining for another ten days.
Lead by PDP leader in the House, Kingsley Chinda (PDP, Rivers), he said; “Mr. Speaker, I stand on section 39 of the Nigerian constitution, section 19 of the Universal declaration on Human and Peoples right and article 9 of the African charter of Human and Peoples right.
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“As a representative of the people, I have a source of communication with my constituents; I have a source of interaction with my leaders. But in moving this, I must, with all sense of responsibility commend the steps you took this morning concerning this issue of ban of twitter. It was very proactive, very timely.
“But my concern is that as a Nigerian and several other Nigerians out there, the implication is that for the ten days you have given that committee to work, this breach will continue. We don’t even know for how long our interaction with the Executive arm will last.
Mr. Chinda stated that he agreed with the leadership of this House, however, he told the house that they urge the Executive arm in the interim to reverse the ban pending their interaction with the Executive as this move has breached “our fundamental human right, particularly the right to fair hearing, right to freedom of speech and expression.”
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