The ECOWAS Court of Justice has fixed Friday, July 9, for the hearing of Nigerian government’s application for the consolidation of the four suits relating to the ban on Twitter in the country.

Nigerian government’s lawyer, Abdullahi Abubakar, had filed the application on July 5, a statement by the court’s press unit said.

The statement said the court had to adjourn the hearing of the application because two out of the four parties suing the federal government over the Twitter ban were not represented in court at Wednesday’s proceedings.

Only the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP), on one hand, and Media Rights Agenda (MRA) and eight others, on the other hand, were represented by their lawyers.

The lawyers did not object to the respondent’s request for consolidation of the four pending suits.

“However the court observed that only two of the parties were represented in court and adjourned the matter to July 9, 2021, for all parties including the representatives of the parties absent at the proceeding to make their submissions on the application for consolidation,” the statement added.