The Nigerian government has said it will ban Twitter indefinitely after the social media platform deleted a controversial tweet by the country’s president.

However, a time for when the ban will start has not been given, with the announcement made on the social media platform.

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari posted a message to his account on Tuesday which threatened suspected separatist militants in the southeast of the country.

Twitter deleted the post on Wednesday, saying it was abusive – and the Nigerian government announced the impending ban of the website on Friday.

The full tweet from President Buhari said: “Many of those misbehaving today are too young to be aware of the destruction and loss of lives that occurred during the 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.”

PRESS RELEASE

FG Suspends @Twitter Operations in Nigeria pic.twitter.com/7z5BQ0Mi3U

In a statement, Twitter said it was investigating the “deeply disturbing” suspension of the platform in Nigeria.

The country’s information minister, Lai Mohammed, said the step was taken because Twitter was being used “for activities that are capable of undermining Nigeria’s corporate existence”.

He added that “the mission of Twitter in Nigeria is very suspicious”, and that the site had ignored past tweets “inciting” against the state.

Users reported still being able to get on to the platform on Friday – and others said they would just use a virtual private network (VPN) to get past any ban.

A VPN allows people to get around local blocking of websites by accessing the internet through a machine located in a different part of the world.

The irony of the announcement being made on Twitter was not lost, with one person replying: “You’re using Twitter to suspend Twitter? Are you not mad?”

More than a million people died in a civil war between 1967 and 1970, when people campaigned for an independent Biafran state for the ethnic Igbo people.

However Mr Buhari, who is an ethnic Fulani, was on the opposite side to the Igbo people.

The Biafra separatists have been accused of attacking police and government property before Mr Buhari’s tweet.

The developments in Nigeria come as Facebook announced that Donald Trump would be suspended from their site until 2023 for his reaction to the Capitol riots.

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