Nigerians on social media have expressed angst over the continued detention of Babatunde Olusola, an orphan and final year student of Chemical Engineering of Ladoke Akintola University (LAUTECH), Ogbomoso, Oyo for operating a parody Twitter account of former Nigerian President, Goodluck Jonathan.
Parody accounts are named after popular persons and used mainly for comic purposes. Twitter rules allow for parody accounts on the condition that the operator of the account indicates this on his profile page.
According to his twitter profile page, Olusola informed his 46, 400 followers that the account was a parody one with the inscription -“BrezzisLife, not GEJ”.
His continued detention has sparked reactions from Nigerians on Twitter with #FreeShola among the top trending topics in Nigeria.
See some reactions:
Sir GoodLuck Jonathan our brother Shola is still in detention! By now I think the mass plea is effective enough to let the young boy freed😢 ..once again please #FreeShola sir @GEJonathan 🙏🏽
— Rith🪐 (@omoNurseFr) July 26, 2020
See everybody dey beg GEJ wey be hero of Democracy but them go insult Buhari the tyrant if him do the same thing.
This life no balance.
Hypocrites too much for Nigeria,no activism again?
No sega to link you up again?
Gbo gbo yin ti ya were.#FreeShola— OLA EKUN (@mrojo88) July 26, 2020
https://twitter.com/litskinayo/status/1287334322190655490
https://twitter.com/Will__Juice/status/1287344955216797698
Shola was arrested on the 23rd of May for a tweet he made with his account as GEJ's parody
Apart from the fact that he stated in his bio it was a parody account, his handle "jayythedope" is clearly different from "GeJonathan".
And what's the essence of verification? #FreeShola
— Simp Police🚨 (@SimpPolice911) July 26, 2020
https://twitter.com/Josh2Funy/status/1287331893944487936
Parody is not an impersonation.
Please @GEJonathan #FreeSholaWe're pleading, the poor boy has been in detention for over 60 days now.
PARODY IS NOT IMPERSONATION
PARODY IS NOT IMPERSONATION
PARODY IS NOT IMPERSONATION#FreeShola pleaseeeeee https://t.co/cxDu8UNys0— ÌYÀWÓ AKÍNKÚNMI🌹 (@Remi_AFR) July 26, 2020
