Arresting, prosecuting Twitter violators not our job, NCC declares

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has declared that it is not within its jurisdiction to arrest and prosecute offenders of the Twitter suspension order.

Recollect that in a statement on Saturday, the Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, had instructed the Director of Public Prosecution to coordinate with the Ministry of Communication and Digital Economy, the NCC and other significant government agencies “to ensure the speedy prosecution of offenders without any further delay.”

However, when contacted on Monday on how far the NCC had gone on working together with the DPP to prosecute offenders, the Director of Public Affairs, Dr Ikechukwu Adinde, declared that it was not within the power of the commission to arrest or prosecute.

Adinde said, “The NCC is a regulator. It is not within our power to arrest or prosecute. Based on our statement, we limited ourselves based on the order given to us by the government, which was to instruct the operators to disconnect, which was what we did. So, the other aspects are not within our purview.”

The Nigerian Communications Commission is the independent National Regulatory Authority for the telecommunications industry in Nigeria.

The Commission is charged with the responsibility of creating an enabling environment for competition among operators in the industry and also guaranteeing the provision of qualitative and effective telecommunications services throughout the nation.

The Executive Vice Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of NCC is Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta.