- An action committee to give effect to cybercrime and bullying has been set up and domiciled in the Ministry of Justice
In a bid to tackle cyber bully and crimes, the Osun State Government has inaugurated a committee to enforce relevant provisions of the law against online fake news among others.
This is as the opposition All Progressives Congress, APC, described the move as an attempt to suppress opposition voice and allow Governor Ademola Adeleke tends towards dictatorship.
A statement issued by the Commissioner for Information and Public Enlightenment, Kolapo Alimi on Sunday said an action committee to give effect to cybercrime and bullying has been set up and domiciled in the Ministry of Justice.
The increasing wave of fake news negatively affects both the government and the opposition and that it is high time all operators were brought to book within the compass of the law in the exercise of their rights as guaranteed by the constitution.
The committee domiciled at the Ministry of Justice has members journalists and legal practitioners, informing the public that the mandate is to ensure that fake news are nipped in the bud, no matter who the perpetrators are.
The Committee is to apply relevant sections of the Cybercrime Act of 2015 as operational clauses to ensure all stakeholders operate within the law in the exercise and enjoyment of their fundamental human rights.
Reacting, the APC in a statement signed by its Chairman, Tajudeen Lawal and made available to newsmen by Kola Olabisi on Sunday, disclosed that the action was a ploy to to muzzle the voices of the opposition and subsequently turn himself into a dictator in a supposed democratic government.
It reads partly: “It defies logic that a governor who has been shielding from arrest his chief propagandist, who is being wanted by the DSS for allegedly planting fake news about the son of the Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, Mr Femi Oyetola, is the one touting to curb cyber bullying.
“The issue is that Governor Adeleke is under pressure to defend his corruption-friendly government which has become a butt of jokes among discerning minds in the state.
“If not, why is this repressive move coming up at this time when our party took him headlong on the shady deals that bedevilled the award of his purported multi-billion road/flyover contracts?
“We want to assure Governor Adeleke that no matter his antics, we, as a party, would not surrender our inalienable rights to act to type as a credible opposition to his reactionary, clueless and corrupt government, in the overall interest of the people of the state”.
Section 24 (1) of the Cybercrime Act, 2015 reads: “A person who knowingly or intentionally sends a message or other matter by means of computer systems or network that is grossly offensive, pornographic or of an indecent, obscene or menacing character or causes any such message or matter to be sent, or he knows to be false, for the purpose of causing annoyance, inconvenience danger, obstruction, insult, injury, criminal intimidation, enmity, hatred, ill will or needless anxiety to another or causes such a message to be sent, commits an offence under this Act and is liable on conviction to a fine of not more than N7, 000, 000.00 or imprisonment for a term, not more than three years or both”.
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