Non-governmental organization human rights, Amnesty International, has reacted to the Federal Government’s lifting of the ban placed on social media platform, Twitter.

The announcement which was disclosed Wednesday night brings an end to seven months of no access to the micro-blogging site after the government announced the ban on 5 June 2021.

During his announcement yesterday, the Director-General of the National Information Technology Development Agency and Chairman Technical Committee Nigeria-Twitter Engagement, Kashifu Abdullahi, informed Nigerians that Twitter will be active “effective from 12 am tonight, January 13, 2022,” after 222 days of outage.

In reaction to the news, the rights group welcomed the lifting of the ban but Amnesty expressed that the Twitter ban was illegal in the first place.

According to the statement released on its Twitter handle, Amnesty called on Nigerian authorities to an end all acts that violate rights to freedom of expression.

“Amnesty International welcomes the lifting of Twitter ban by Nigerian authorities, after 7–months of depriving Nigerians from exercising their right to freedom of expression on a social media platform that facilitates dialogue and empowers everyone to communicate, hold useful debates and conversations, and demand accountability from the Nigerian authorities.

“The Twitter ban was illegal — in the first place — and an attack on the right to freedom of expression, including online, access to information and media freedom.

“Nigerian authorities must end all acts that violate rights to freedom of expression, access to information, and freedom of the press,” the rights group said.