Udora Orizu in Abuja
The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has filed a lawsuit asking the court for an order of perpetual injunction to restrain President Muhammadu Buhari and the Minister of Communication and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami from unlawfully shutting down telecommunication networks in any part of the country.
The Nigerian Commu-nications Commission (NCC) recently ordered telecom operators to suspend all telecommunications networks in some states, including Zamfara State, and at least 13 local government areas of Katsina State purportedly to check banditry/terrorism.
However, in the suit with number FHC/ABJ/CS/1323/2021 filed at the Federal High Court, Abuja, SERAP asked the court to determine whether the shutting down of telecommunication networks in any part of Nigeria by the Buhari administration was unlawful, and a violation of the rights of access to correspondence, freedom of expression, information and the press.
The suit, which has been assigned to Justice Ahmed Mohammed at Court 4, was fixed for hearing on January 11, 2022.
SERAP argued that the Buhari administration had constitutional and international legal obligations to enable access to the internet for all, as access to the Internet is inextricably linked to the exercise of freedom of expression and information.
While agreeing that the authorities have a legal responsibility to protect, ensure and secure the rights to life and property,
SERAP however said any such responsibility ought to be discharged in conformity with constitutional and international human rights standards.
The suit filed on behalf of SERAP by its lawyers Kolawole Oluwadare and Kehinde Oyewumi, read in part: “Internet and telecommunication shutdowns amount to inherently disproportionate interference with the rights to freedom of expression and information.
“Necessity requires a showing that shutdowns would achieve their stated purpose, which in fact they often jeopardise. In their 2011 Joint Declaration on Freedom of Expression and the Internet, four special mandates on freedom of expression emphasised that cutting off access to the internet, or parts of the internet, for whole populations or segments of the public can never be justified, including on public order or national security grounds.
“Shutdowns generate a wide variety of harms to human rights, economic activity, public safety and emergency services that outweigh the purported benefits. Any shutdown has the potential to affect millions of internet and telecommunication users, and those on the margins of society are most impacted by it.
“The suspension of the internet and telecommunication networks in Zamfara and Katsina states, without any legal justification, is inconsistent with the principles of necessity and proportionality.
“The suspension is a form of collective punishment of Nigerians resident in these states. The imposition of any restrictions should be guided by the objective of facilitating the right, rather than seeking unnecessary and disproportionate limitations on it. Restrictions must not be discriminatory, impair the essence of the right, or be aimed at causing a chilling effect. Internet and telecommunication shutdowns fail to meet all of these conditions.”
