" ITREALMS: NIRA refutes Gov. Fashola's claim, says APC Domain Name not shut

Thursday, January 22, 2015

NIRA refutes Gov. Fashola's claim, says APC Domain Name not shut

ITRealms:

The attention of the Nigeria Internet Registration Association (NIRA) has been drawn to the news making a round that the Federal Government has shut down the official website of the All Progressives Congress (APC), the "www.apc.com.ng" which is untrue and unfounded, reports ITRealms.

ITRealms recalls that Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, was reported as saying on Tuesday "the federal government has shut down the official website of the All Progressives Congress (APC), just as he unveiled the fund-raising strategy for the presidential campaign of the party." - ThisDay 21/1/2015 page 6.

ITRealms also reports that particularly, NIRA as the managers of the Nigeria's country code Top Level Domain (ccTLD), the .NG under NITDA Act of 2007, is concerned that this allegation is coming from the Lagos State Governor at this time.

NIRA therefore stated unequivocally that there was no time "www.apc.com.ng" website was shut from .NG domain string, stressing that it is in the interest of Nigeria and .NG brand that NIRA continues to project the image of Nigeria always and it's on this light that NIRA wishes to clear the air on the alleged shutting down of "www.apc.com.ng."

ITRealms gathered that NIRA investigations revealed that:

"1. apc.com.ng has not been edited since 31st January 2014
2. no one in NIRA or our registrar (Web4Africa) who registered "www.apc.com.ng" received any request regarding the domain name since 17th October 2013
3. A visit to apc.com.ng out of curiosity a few days ago revealed the website as currently on display at www.apc.com.ng today 21st January 2015, is new.
4. There was a tiny text notice on the domain a few days ago that the website was down for maintenance.
5. The No. 3 above leads us to suspect the website admin must have taken the old website down and written the notice.
6. It may be obvious the web administrator may not have informed their party leaders thus the allegations."

Accordingly to NIRA President, Mrs Mary Uduma, such act as alleged by Gov. Fashola will encourage capital flight, and negates the objective of NIRA, hence NIRA cannot go against it's set guidelines to begin to shut down domain names instead of promoting .NG uptake, especially by the political class.
NIRA president said, the politicians who are embarking online campaigns should be on .ng string, which will be a show of patriotism.
She insisted there was no directive to the effect of shutting down any website on .NG let alone the one belonging to APC.

Mrs. Uduma used the opportunity to enjoin politicians to make use of .NG domain string in their online activities, as that is what will mark them out as patriotic leaders of 21st century.

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