BY: News Peddlers
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| Bola Tinubu and David Hundeyin |
Peoples Gazette has learned that independent journalist David Hundeyin's account on the microblogging service Twitter has been disabled after he revealed Bola Tinubu's Guinean passport.
On Saturday night, Mr. Hundeyin shared pictures of a diplomatic passport from Guinea displaying "Bola Ahmed Tinubu" and his picture to Twitter, setting up a frenzy among Nigerian internet users.
The tweet was flooded with privacy complaints from Mr. Tinubu's fans, who were outraged by the disclosure, which caused Twitter's automated system to flag the message for deletion.
The journalist's account was also locked because he had broken Twitter's rules regarding the use of personal information.
By flagging the tweet as revealing Mr. Tinubu's personal details, supporters of the president-elect may have unwittingly revealed that the passport is his.
The journalist claimed to have written to Twitter to contest the ban and made a compelling case that Mr. Tinubu's citizenship in Guinea was a matter of national and public interest. He didn't know when the suspension would end though.
According to Mr. Hundeyin, he shared a document belonging to a prominent figure—the president-elect of the biggest economy in Africa—because it was of general interest to the public.
“After posting evidence of @officialABAT’s undisclosed dual citizenship and perjurous INEC EC9 declaration, West Africa Weekly founder @DavidHundeyin’s Twitter account has been maliciously reported for “posting private information” and is temporarily locked, tweeted @WestAfricaWeek, a digital publication owned by Mr Hundeyin.
“You may not publish or post other people’s private information without their express authorisation and permission,” Twitter wrote to Mr Hundeyin in a mail in the early hours of Monday.
Peoples Gazette contacted Twitter over the suspension, but they did not answer right away.
Since Section 137 of the Constitution forbids anybody who "has voluntarily acquired the citizenship of a country other than Nigeria" from holding elective office, the passport raised new questions about Mr. Tinubu's eligibility.
Another issue was the pending perjury charge against Mr. Tinubu, namely if there would be repercussions for the president-elect lying on the EC-9 form regarding his second acquired Guinean citizenship.
INEC had not yet provided a response to Peoples Gazette's inquiry.
(Peoples Gazette)