Udora Orizu in Abuja
Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to direct the Minister of Communication and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami, and the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to immediately reverse the “apparently unjustified” suspension of internet and telecommunication networks in Zamfara State and 13 local government areas of Katsina State.
NCC recently ordered telecoms operators to suspend all telecommunications networks in Zamfara State, and 13 local government areas of Katsina State purportedly to check banditry and other security challenges, including terrorism.
SERAP in an open letter dated September 11, 2021, and signed by its Deputy Director, Kolawole Oluwadare, said the suspension, without any legal justification, is inconsistent with the principles of necessity, proportionality and a form of collective punishment of Nigerians resident in those states.
According to SERAP, while the authorities have a legal responsibility to protect and secure the rights to life and property, any such responsibility ought to be discharged in conformity with constitutional and international human rights standards.
The letter read in part: “Shutdowns generate a wide variety of harms to human rights, economic activity, public safety and emergency services that outweigh the purported benefits. The suspension has the potential to affect millions of internet and telecommunication users in these states, and those on the margins of the society are most impacted by it.
“While checking the activities of bandits and terrorists in these states could conceivably be viewed as justification for exceptional measures necessary to protect public order or national security, the authorities have so far failed to show how shutting down internet and telecommunications networks in Zamfara State and 13 LGAs of Katsina State is necessary to achieve the stated purposes. We would be grateful if the suspension of telecommunication networks in Zamfara and Katsina States is reversed within seven days of the receipt and/or publication of this letter. If we have not heard from you by then, SERAP shall take all appropriate legal actions in the public interest.”
