₦airaland Forum

Social media giant Twitter has agreed to pay “applicable tax” and establish a legal entity in Nigeria in the first quarter of 2022, a senior government official said on Wednesday.

Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, the director-general of the National Information Technology Development Agency, who headed the Nigerian team that negotiated with Twitter, said in a statement while announcing the lifting of the more than six-month long suspension of the social media platform in the country.

Twitter will also appoint a “designated country representative to interface with Nigerian authorities” by 2023, Abdullahi said.

The platform is also expected to enrol Nigeria in its Partner Support and Law Enforcement Portals. The Law Enforcement Portal provides a channel for the law enforcement agencies to submit a report with a legal justification where it suspects that content violates Nigerian Laws.

“Twitter has agreed to act with a respectful acknowledgement of Nigerian laws and the national culture and history on which such legislation has been built and work with the FGN and the broader industry to develop a Code of Conduct in line with global best practices, applicable in almost all developed countries,” Abdullahi said.

Nigeria suspended Twitter in June 2021, days after the platform deleted a remark from Buhari’s account, provoking outcry over freedom of expression in Africa’s most populous country.

Nigerian officials defended the suspension saying Twitter was used to promote fake news and for destabilising activities, especially by separatists in the southeast.

Buhari’s government and Twitter have been in talks over a list of conditions for ending the suspension, including discussions on taxes, content, and registering locally in Nigeria.

“The issues are being addressed and I have directed that the suspension be lifted, but only if the conditions are met to allow our citizens to continue the use of the platform for business and positive engagements,” Buhari said in a speech marking Nigeria’s independence day.

Tap0lane:
Fact but your Igbo father can not be a houseboy to the same Otedola, the richest fool in the history of your lineage dead alive n unborn will beg to be his slave so what his your point mumu fool

adamsmith914:
The richest Ohaneze from Emmanuel Inwanyanwu to Prince Arthur Eze, will do House Boy for Femi Otedola.

techmo:
But why be say mkpuru Mniri people they always reason somehow sha


.

Passengers in a commercial bus heading to Lagos from Uyo, the Akwa Ibom State capital, were kidnapped on Tuesday when unknown gunmen intercepted the bus in Isiala Mbano, Imo State.

Our correspondent gathered that the incident which happened at Odo Rubber road in Obiohuru in the Isiala Mbano Local Government Area of the state, had caused tension in the area.

The passengers were travelling in a bus marked Government Akwa Ibom State when the gunmen struck, took them away leaving behind the vehicle and luggage.

A community source told our correspondent that “no one knows where they were taken to. The bus was still steaming when the villagers saw it on Tuesday at that lonely area called Odo Rubber. Phones and luggage of the passengers were intact.”

Our correspondent gathered that the vehicle had been pushed out of the lonely road and handed over to the police.

The President-General of the community, Dr Sharon Ohaka, who spoke to our correspondent on the phone on Wednesday, said the bus had been pushed out of the lonely road by the youths. He also disclosed that the community had invited the police.

He said, “The vehicle had been pushed out of the lonely road. We have invited the police at the area command level and the divisional headquarters at Ishiebu. They have taken over the vehicle and the passengers’ luggage and the investigation process.

The spokesperson for the Imo State Police Command, Micheal Abattam, had yet to respond to a text message sent to him by our correspondent as of the time of filing this report.