Screenshot of Malami’s Twitter deactivation shows app for trading banned cryptocurrency

As a follow-up to his earlier threat to prosecute users of the microblogging platform, Nigeria’s Justice Minister, Abubakar Malami, flaunted the deactivation of his Twitter account on Facebook Tuesday.

Attached to his “My Twitter Account Deactivated” post, however, is a screenshot of the deactivation, which also contained a couple of icons including one used to trade the prohibited cryptocurrency.

Checks by PREMIUM TIMES showed that while making the screenshot on his phone, Mr Malami had LATOKEN, a crypto trading app, on.

The ‘LA’ logo confirmed to be the platform’s was conspicuously sitting at the top right side of the minister’s mobile phone.

LATOKEN is a top crypto exchange platform created in 2017.

Although it recently introduced a mobile recharge function, it is mainly used to exchange, buy, sell, or send Bitcoin, NFT, tokens, and over 200 cryptocurrencies.

Ban

The Central Bank of Nigeria had in February banned the trading of cryptocurrency in the country.

In fact, the regulator directed banks in the country to close all cryptocurrency-related accounts, claiming the digital currency is used for money laundering and terrorism.

VPN

Also spotted at the top right side of his phone is the Virtual Private Network (VPN), a tool many Nigerians have been using to access Twitter after the federal government suspended the microblogging site’s operations in the country.

VPN encrypts users’ internet traffic, which makes it more difficult for third parties to track activities online or steal data.

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It, however, remains unclear if the minister, who had threatened Twitter users, also made use of the tool to access his Twitter page before deactivation.

“Malami directed the Director of Public Prosecution of the Federation (DPPF) at the Office of the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, to swing into action and commence in earnest the process of prosecution of violators of the Federal Government De-activation of operations of Twitter in Nigeria.

“Malami directed the DPPF to liaise with the Ministry of Communication and Digital Economy, National Communication Communication (NCC) and other relevant government agencies to ensure the speedy prosecution of offenders without any further delay, ” Mr Malami’s publicist, Umar Gwandu, had said on Saturday.

PREMIUM TIMES is also uncertain if the same order will now affect Mr Malami.

Premium Times could not speak with Mr Malami to explain his use of LATOKEN app and VPN as his spokesperson, Umar Gwandu, did not respond to telephone calls put across on Wednesday.

He is also yet to respond to a text message requesting a response.