- APC: It’s Suppressive Tool Against Dissent Voices’
- Osun Govt: “ APC wants to turn the State into a haven of fake news…”
By Abiola Olawale
The unending battle of wits between the Osun state chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has taken another dimension as the opposition party has alleged that the setting up of the Action Committee On Cyber Crimes, Cyber Bullying by the state Governor, Senator Ademola Adeleke is a ploy to muzzle the voices of the opposition and subsequently turn himself into a dictator in a supposed democratic government.
The Osun APC’s reaction comes after the Osun State Government, on Sunday, announced its decision to set up a Cybercrime Action Committee to stop the spread of fake news in the state.
The Osun State Commissioner for Information and Public Engagement, Barrister Kolapo Alimi, in a statement on Sunday, said the development is aimed at sanitizing the governance space and ensuring that politicking and governance take place under an atmosphere of responsibility, decency, and honesty.”
The New Diplomat reports that this development comes in the wake of a social media war between the supporters of the ruling PDP and the opposition APC on issues relating to governance and the personality of individuals in the parties.
The commissioner said the increasing wave of fake news in the state was negatively affecting both the government and the opposition.
He explained that “the committee domiciled in the Ministry of Justice has as members journalists and legal practitioners, informing the public that the mandate is to ensure that fake news is nipped in the bid, 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.
He added: “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 offense 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.”
However, in a statement issued by Osun APC’s Director of Media and Information, Chief Kola Olabisi, the party described the move of the Adeleke administration as an afterthought aimed at planting fears in the minds of patriotic citizens who are bent on knowing why the Governor chose to award over N50bn public road contracts to cyber cafe operators, fertilizer distributors and cronies with no technical and professional competence to execute road projects.
The APC vowed that it is ready to battle Adeleke and his Nazi Army to ensure that the voice of the opposition in the state is not repressed.
The party also told Adeleke in clear terms that the governance of a state could not be handled as a family enterprise, hence whoever is in the saddle should be accountable and transparent as the state resources he is spending is a common patrimony of all the people of the state.
The statement reads: “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 cyberbullying.
“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 bedeviled 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.
“We will continue to expose him and other members of his family who were complicit in the shoddy road and borehole contracts in the state. We will do everything to tame him from installing an Augustus Pinochet regime in Osun State.”
