The Presidency, yesterday, denied involvement in the move by the National Assembly to amend the Nigerian Press Council (NPC) and National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) Acts.
This is as a result of condemnations by relevant stakeholders of alleged attempt to gag the press.
Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, claimed that the initiative was completely outside the Presidency’s purview, noting that the matter was a government thing, which only the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, could adequately address.
Adesina made the clarification while addressing State House correspondents at the end of the weekly Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari in Abuja.
Adesina said “That is not strictly a Presidency thing because the President has nothing to do with that. It’s a government thing and it’s the minister that can talk about it.”
The presidential spokesman also disclosed that the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), Abubakar Malami, was studying the ruling of the ECOWAS Court that held that Twitter users cannot be arrested or prosecuted following the suspension of the micro-blogging platform in Nigeria.
He said the AGF would, thereafter, advise the Federal Government on the next step to take.
