GOVERNOR of Lagos State, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, has lifted the social media block placed on rights activist and lawyer, Festus Ogun.
This came after both of them met briefly at Lagos House, Marina, on Friday.
Ogun, who disclosed the development in a post on X on Saturday, September 13, said the governor invited him to address his long-standing complaints of human rights violations.
He noted that while the meeting resolved the immediate matter, his commitment to holding authorities accountable remained unchanged.
The development follows a lawsuit Ogun filed earlier this year at the Federal High Court in Lagos, challenging Sanwo-Olu’s decision to block him on X (formerly Twitter).
The lawyer argued that the governor’s action violated his constitutional right to access information, citing his criticisms of the government’s handling of the October 2020 #EndSARS protests as the reason for the block.
“We will continue to hold authorities accountable, regardless. Aluta continua!” he tweeted.
In the suit, marked FHC/L/CS/1739/25, Ogun asked the court to declare the block unconstitutional and discriminatory.
He demanded an apology and urged the judiciary to restrain public officials from targeting critics online.
The case drew attention to a 2019 ruling in the United States, where courts held that elected officials could not shut out citizens from official communication channels on social media.
Digital rights advocates in Nigeria have consistently warned that online restrictions by public officials undermine democratic accountability.
In 2021, former President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration banned Twitter nationwide for over seven months, a move widely condemned as an attack on free expression.
While Sanwo-Olu’s decision to unblock Ogun may have eased personal tensions, the wider debate over citizens’ digital rights and access to governance information in Nigeria remains unresolved, as rights activists continue to seek better ways of holding power to account.
“Nigeria must wake up to resist a silent coup against democracy,” a rights activist, Emmanuel Onwubiko, said.
A reporter with the ICIR
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