Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila on Tuesday shut down a request seeking the federal government’s reversal of the ban on Twitter.
Kingsley Chinda, a PDP lamwker from Rivers state, in a point of order, asked the House to lobby the executive arm of government to lift the ban on the microblogging site, Twitter pending when the committee set up to look into the ban concludes its investigation.
He argued the ban infringed on the rights of Nigerians to freedom of expression.
Shutting down the point of order, Gbajabiamila said when a matter had been concluded and ruled upon, it cannot revisited.
He said; “It will be out of order to attempt to reconsider any specific matter which the House has concluded upon… unless there is a substantive motion.
“The matter has been sent to relevant committees of the House to investigate, and they will report to us in 10 days.
“Even though you have got a motion here, we would have referred it to the same committee, the motion would have been killed. You have not complied with order 9 rule 6, you are rued out of order.”
Undeterred, Chinda insisted on his demand, leading to a rowdy session. He subsequently led other PDP members as they staged a walk out during plenary.
Speaking with journalists after the walkout, Chinda, who is the leader of the PDP caucus, said the speaker’s ruling on the matter should have been debated to reflect the opinion of the lawmakers.
“Let me commend the decision of the leadership of the house to mandate relevant committees to investigate the ban on Twitter operations in Nigeria.
“We just want to add that the federal government should lift the ban pending the outcome of the investigation,” he said.
