In a series of tweets, the ministry cited "the persistent use of the platform for activities that are capable of undermining Nigeria's corporate existence" as the reason for banning the microblogging site.

The suspension order comes two days after Twitter deleted a post on President Muhammadu Buhari’s account saying the tweet violated its rules.

On June 1, Buhari had tweeted about treating "those misbehaving today" in "the language they will understand" while referring to  the 1967-70 Nigerian Civil War.

“Those of us in the fields for 30 months, who went through the war, will treat them in the language they understand,” the 78-year-old president, who is a former military dictator, had posted on Twitter, according to Al Jazeera

His tweet was in relation to the recent violence in the southeast, where the administration blamed separatist activities for attacking election offices and police.

The micro blogging site was used for last year's campaign against anti-police brutality End Sars protests and Jack Dorsey, Twitter's founder, had donated to one of the organisations leading the protests, drawing the government's wrath, according to media reports.

The Nigerian government viewed Twitter's role in stimulating the young population of the country as crossing the line.

How the ban was implemented

Mobile phone networks in the country have been asked to block Twitter access in the country, said the Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (Alton) in a statement, reported BBC.

The association said its members have complied with the request acting in accordance with the "national interest provisions" in the telecoms law and the licensing terms, the report said.

The suspension is also seen as a partial one as the users can still access Twitter through some wifi networks, it informed.

However, BBC said its correspondents in Lagos and Abuja could not connect to Twitter through the country's two largest telecom providers: MTN and Airtel.

According to NOI polls, over 39 million Nigerians have a Twitter account, and the platform is frequently used by many to debate on social issues.

Meanwhile, Twitter said it was "investigating and will provide updates when we know more" about the ban by the Nigerian government.

“Network data show that access to the Twitter platform and backend servers is now restricted on leading networks MTN, Globacom, Airtel and 9mobile,” the London-based internet monitor Netblocks wrote on its website on Saturday.

Criticism

The ban on Twitter has met with strong criticism coming from commoners as well as rights agencies.

The country's main opposition party termed the move "unwarranted" and "pushing Nigerians to the wall", CNN reported.

Media reports said that so far the Nigerian government has not come out with an explanation how Twitter had undermined Nigeria's corporate existence.

Peoples Democratic Party, currently in opposition in Nigeria, said in a statement,"Our party notes that Mr. Lai Mohammed, in his statement, failed to cite an example of where Nigerians used @Twitter as a platform to promote acts that are capable of undermining Nigeria's corporate existence as he claimed."

The Nigerian Bar Association said if the Twitter ban is not "immediately reversed" it would take legal action against the Nigerian government.

According to CNN, SERAP, a civil society group based in Lagos, has also vowed to drag the Nigerian government to court over the indefinite suspension of Twitter operations in the country.

"...We're suing Nigerian authorities over their ILLEGAL indefinite suspension... @NigeriaGov, we'll see you in court."

The Embassy of Sweden in Nigeria, the Canadian and British missions in the country as well as Amnesty International condemned the ban, all highlighting the freedom of speech for Nigerians.

"Thank God For VPN" trends

As Nigerians were unable to access Twitter through telecom networks, they decided to circumvent the ban with the use of a virtual private network (VPN).

A secured VPN server allows access to public networks keeping their internet connection encrypted and anonymous.

CNN said  "Thank God For VPN"  has gone viral as Nigerians asserted their right to use Twitter through the use of a virtual private network (VPN).

Terms linked to "VPN"  were searched extensively by Nigerians and it went popular overnight, according to the search tracking site Trendsmap, BBC said.

VPN makes it appear as if the user is accessing the internet from a different country.