Court Grants SERAP’s Suit Requesting Lai Mohammed To Disclose Agreement Between Buhari-led Administration And X

In a landmark verdict, Justice Nnamdi Okwy Dimgba of the Federal High Court in Lagos ordered former Minister Lai Mohammed and the Ministry of Information and Culture to disclose the agreement between the federal government and Twitter, now X.

This ruling, reportedly delivered in May 2024, resulted from a Freedom of Information (FOI) suit filed by the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) and was disclosed after obtaining the certified true copy (CTC) of the judgment last Friday.

Deputy Director of SERAP, Kolawole Oluwadare, confirmed this development on Sunday. He highlighted that the court’s order was explicitly issued to assess whether the agreement upheld the human rights of Nigerians online.

With this, the former minister and the Ministry of Information are compelled to provide a copy of the agreement between the Nigerian government and Twitter (now X) to ascertain any breach of Nigerians’ rights.

The suit was in tandem with June 4, 2021, when the former President, Muhammadu Buhari, ordered Twitter’s suspension after it removed his post, threatening ‘civil war’ upon suspected separatist militants in the southeast.

During the court sitting last Friday, Justice Dimgba said, “The minister has failed to prove that the President followed due process of law to designate Twitter as a critical national information infrastructure upon the National Security Adviser’s recommendation and issued an Order in the Federal Gazette in that regard.

Disclosing the details of the Nigerian Government’s and Twitter’s agreement is in the public interest and does not affect Twitter’s business interest as a third party. It is also not prejudicial to Nigeria’s sovereignty and national security,” Justice Dimgba held.

Justice Dimgba dismissed the objection the minister’s counsel raised and upheld the judgment in SERAP’s favour.

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