< img src="https://eyewitness101.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/2023-unbanning-twitter-gimmick-to-refurbish-apcs-dented-image-group.jpg"class ="ff-og-image-inserted"> A group, Youth Rights Campaign( YRC ), has explained the Federal Government’s lifting of a restriction on Twitter, a microblogging platform, as an attempt to refurbish the image of the judgment All Progressives Congress (APC).

The group cautioned Nigerians against jubilating over the current unbanning of Twitter after over 200 days.

But YRC, while responding, noted that the current unbanning of Twitter is nothing to be wondrous about.

The group stated that it does not suggest that the Buhari program has gotten rid of its skin of autocracy and repression.

YRC, in a declaration signed by Michael Lenin, National Coordinator, and Francis Nwapa, National Secretary, and provided to DAILY POST on Tuesday, described that “unbanning of Twitter is a trick by the stopped working Buhari APC regime to recondition its high-handed image ahead of the 2023 general elections”.

The group then required the release of all political detainees consisting of over 200 EndSARS protesters still in detention.

“After over 7 months of criminally rejecting Nigerians access to Twitter, the regime has lastly unbanned access to the social networks platform. For us in the Youth Rights Campaign (YRC) this is absolutely nothing to be wondrous about as it does not indicate that the Buhari regime has actually shed off its skin of autocracy and repression.

“Rather the reversal of this undesirable restriction is on one hand, another gimmick by the stopped working Buhari led All Progressive Congress (APC) regime to recondition its oppressive image ahead of the 2023 basic elections and on another hand, a concession to the frustrating opposition to the ban by huge majority of Nigerians, specifically the youth.

“Therefore, the youth and working individuals need to even be more figured out in the coming duration to continue the resist the undemocratic and anti-poor policies of the totalitarian Buhari federal government.

“While twitter is now unbanned, over 200 youths apprehended during the EndSARS demonstrations over one year ago are still in detention. This is aside numerous political detainees consisting of reporters, bloggers and owners of social networks accounts who have either vanished, been incarcerated or under trial in various parts of the nation for just exercising their democratic rights to liberty of expression. Aside this, the report and suggestions of the Lagos State EndSARS panel viz-a-viz the killings of protesters at Lekki toll gate are yet to be implemented while the Lekki massacre victims are yet to be compensated.

“The YRC hereby call for the release of over 200 EndSARS protesters still in detention throughout the country as well as flexibility for all political detainees consisting of Omoyele Sowore.

“We require the remediation of the identity cards and other files of Omoyele Sowore all of which were supposedly shut down by the federal government a few days ago in yet another state attack on the activist. We demand complete execution of the Lagos EndSARS panel and reports of comparable panels across the nation. We also require the instant payment of compensation and other reliefs to all victims of state repression including those killed and impaired in Lekki and other parts of the country.

“To be clear, if not for the protest by Nigerians against the undemocratic banning of Twitter, the government would not only have actually sustained the ban, it might have taken comparable steps against other social networks platforms while releasing more attacks on democratic rights. This is due to the fact that the intention behind the restriction of twitter is to deny Nigerians the civic space to organize any kind of resistance to anti-poor, capitalist policies of the government,” the statement checked out.