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Thursday, November 18, 2021

Wema Bank defies Twitter ban to gift Davido N1 million

Corporate bodies in Nigeria had abstained from Twitter since the Buhari regime banned the platform on June 5.

• November 17, 2021
Alat and Davido
ALAT and Davido

Wema Bank on Wednesday tweeted its gift of N1 million to musician, Davido, transgressing the Buhari regime’s ban on the microblogging site.

“We heard your GOAT called our name. Well…

#ALATgoals #ALATmakessmile. #30BG #30billiongang,” Alat, a digital bank owned by Wema tweeted on Wednesday. 

Prior to the announcement on Wednesday, Alat has kept away from Twitter since June 5, 2021 when the federal government announced the indefinite suspension of the platform over some allegations.

Ahead of his 29th birthday on November 19, Davido posted his Wema Bank account on social media and asked people to donate.

The 30 Billion Gang supremo on his Instagram page “jokingly” solicited help from friends who have ever benefited from him in the past to repay the favour by sending him N1 million each.

The challenge sparked torrents of donations from friends and fans, some of whom have been posting evidence of their contribution online.

“Omo 7 m in 10 minutes keep goin!! I love y’all! AIM NAH 100m I wan clear my rolls Royce from port abeg,” Davido announced on Twitter but urged donors to keep it up as he is targeting to raise N100 million in charity. At the time of filing this report, the donations have marked up to over N56 million.

In June, Twitter was banned after the social media platform removed a tweet by President Muhammadu Buhari that threatened to punish regional secessionists in the South-East region of the country.

Most public and corporate bodies operating in Nigeria had since abstained from Twitter to avoid government hammer to individuals have been deploying VPNs to circumvent barred access to the site.

The federal government say that all social media platforms operating in Nigeria must be registered as a business entity locally henceforth. The same condition was laid down as one of the preconditions for the lifting of the ban on Twitter.

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