Fake News Can Break Nigeria Faster Than Insurgency – Lai Mohammed
Alhaji Lai Mohammed, Minister of Information and Culture[/caption]
The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed has said that fake news has the capacity to break the country faster than insurgency.
The minister made the statement on Tuesday in Abuja at the seventh edition of the National Security Seminar, jointly organised by the National Defence College of Nigeria, the Office of the National Security Adviser and the Alumni Association of National Defence College.
Mohammed, who as speaking on the theme “Consolidating on the Gains of Counter Terrorism Operations in Nigeria,’’ said that the phenomenon of fake news propagated majorly by the social media “is so serious that it threatened to break the country rapidly even more than insurgency’’.
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He said that the fake news phenomenon is a situation where someone or some persons will fabricate stories capable of setting one group or religion against the other and send them out through the social media.
“Regrettably, fake news is circulated worldwide through the means of the social media and it travels faster.
“Only recently, we have to refute the fake news that Nigeria today is the most difficult place for Christians to live.
“There was also the fake report that the armed forces of Nigeria armed the Fulani herdsmen and instigate them to carry out attacks.
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“All these news are unfounded, fake and has the capacity to set one religion or group against the other,’’ he said.
