The Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operations of Nigeria (ALTON) has confirmed that they received formal instructions from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to suspend access to Twitter.
This was contained in a statement signed by Engr. Gbenga Adebayo, the Chairman of the association, and Gbolahan Awonuga, the Executive Secretary.
ALTON said “based on national provisions in the Nigerian Communications Act, 2003, and within the licence terms under which the industry operates; our members have acted in compliance with the directives of the NCC”.
It added that “as an industry, we endorse the position of the United Nations that the rights held by people offline must be protected online. This includes respecting and protecting the rights of all people to communicate, to share information freely and responsibly, and to enjoy privacy and security regarding their data and their use of digital communications.”
Twitter finally went down in Nigeria early on Saturday morning.
Most Nigerians have now resorted to Virtual Private Network (VPN) to access the micro-blogging site.
