The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, has again stated the Federal Government’s responsibility to the regulation of social media in Nigeria.
The minister at a media briefing on Thursday, November 19, 2020, said social media was utilized untrustworthy by ‘some corrupt people’ to exasperate the far and wide violence seen in the nation in October following nationwide protests against police brutality.
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Mohammed said social media was utilized to spread disinformation that declined a month ago’s emergency and noticed that it strengthens the public authority’s determination to regulate its utilization.
He said the public authority is resolved to find some kind of harmony between free discourse, which it is focused on maintaining, and social media disinformation that it’s resolved to battle.
“While the public authority has no designs to close down the web, it will work with partners to regulate social media to check misuse,” he said.
Several Nigerians had calmly protested in numerous states the nation over in October to request a finish too long stretches of wanton police brutality.
At any rate, 15 protesters were accounted for killed by cops who broke down fiercely on the shows in the underlying days, notwithstanding the public authority’s endeavors to satisfy the needs of the protesters.
The exhibits in the long run finished in the fatal assault by warriors on tranquil protesters in the Lekki region of Lagos on October 20, an assault that prompted the demise of a yet-to-be-resolved number of protesters.
The episode swelled into a breakdown of lawfulness in Lagos and the nation over with numerous occurrences of plundering and defacing recorded.
Mohammed depicted the Lekki episode as a ‘fabrication slaughter’ without bodies to demonstrate anybody was executed, despite the fact that the Lagos State government has formally conceded two fatalities.
The minister said the slaughter was produced by social media and considered opposite reports an endeavor to actuate agitation in Nigeria.
For quite a long time, the Nigerian Army was quiet on its contribution in the shooting, and called media reports counterfeit news, until it later conceded that it was welcomed by the Lagos government and that troops shot empty shells noticeable all around to scatter protesters.
Mohammed emphasized the Army’s position, taking note of that clear ammo can’t harm the tissue, not to discuss murdering anybody.
“The purveyors of phony news and disinformation prevailing with regards to misdirecting the whole world that there was mass murdering in Lekki, in any event, when till date, not a solitary body has been created and not a solitary family or relative has come out to state their kid or ward was executed at Lekki cost entryway,” he said.
The minister likewise pummeled CNN’s report about the episode, considering it a helpless bit of news coverage that depended on unconfirmed recordings and declarations.
He said the global media association ought to be authorized for the insightful report, yet didn’t state how.
He likewise pummeled the media and common freedoms associations for making light of setbacks endured by security specialists and offices a month ago.
As per the minister, 37 cops and six troopers were executed during the emergency, while 196 cops were likewise harmed.
He said 164 police vehicles were demolished, and 134 police headquarters consumed and noticed that other security offices lost framework, hardware, and different assets to assaults by criminals.
He likewise announced that eight medium-security custodial focuses were assaulted in Edo, Lagos, Abia, Delta, Ondo, and Ebonyi, prompting the escape of almost 2,000 prisoners.
The minister said the public authority was happy with the pretended by the security offices, particularly the military and the Police all through the #EndSARS exhibitions.
“The security specialists were proficient and estimated in their reaction. In any event, when their lives were in question, they practiced phenomenal limitation.
“Their polished skill and estimated reaction spared numerous lives and property,” he said.
Mohammed said anybody that has any proof to demonstrate a slaughter occurred in Lekki should introduce it to the Lagos State legal board of request exploring the occurrence.
