Nigerians have been called upon to beware of cyber-bandits, fake news merchants and their accomplices, who try to undermine the war against banditry in the North-West.
The Citizens Against Fake Activists (CAFA) made the call in a statement, saying such individuals/groups aid and abet terrorist activities and instigate the locals against the government because of their personal benefits.
CAFA’s Director of Communications, Comrade Kabiru Dallah, stated this while reacting to reports of an alleged attack in Governor Bello Matawalle’s hometown in Zamfara State, a claim the governor has since refuted.
Advertisement
“We read with utter disappointment the fake news published by a certain online news platform called Daily Post on August 9, 2020, claiming there was an attack in Governor Bello Matawalle’s hometown in Maradun Local Government Area of Zamfara State,” Dallah said.
“The report claimed that over 20 innocent people lost their lives in the attack. Worse still a TV station called Control TV preferred to claim in its report that over 50 people died.
“Unfortunately, nothing is further from the truth as that has now been established by the state government in a press statement made available to reporters on the 11th of August 2020 by Zailani Bappa, Special Adviser, Public enlightenment, media and communications to the governor. The state government made it clear that there was no such attack”, he added.
Dallah also claimed that some the platforms were the media arm of the bandits, which explains why they are quick to “twist the narrative in their favour.”
“While the government continues to strive to bring peace to troubled areas, the Director of Communications added that sponsors and others benefitting from the insecurity will not relent in ensuring that the status quo remains.
“Some of them are political merchants and agents of darkness working for their Godfathers in highly placed positions.
“They will deploy all resources at their disposal to ensure they continue to profit from the misery of others. This is why the media space ought to be circumspect in their reporting, in order not to play into the hands of the saboteurs.”
CAFA, however, urged the security agencies to turn their searchlight to the promoters of these criminal groups as well as their propaganda machinery.
“Their source of finance must be targeted; those who run their propaganda machinery must be found and brought to book. The sponsors of these groups remain the oxygen for their activities. Take out the sponsors and within a few weeks, the remnants on the battlefield would have been finished off by our great military,” the group said.
The group further encouraged Zamfara natives to support the efforts of the government to bring banditry and other crimes to an end.
Recall that the Federal Government had in July, 2018 launched the National Campaign Against Fake News, with an assurance that it would not resort to censorship.
Information Minister, Lai Mohammed, during the campaign launch in Abuja, described fake news as an epidemic sweeping the world.
Mohammed stated that fake news on the social media was fuelling farmer-herder crises in Nigeria.
The minister also added, “The essence of this campaign is to sensitise all Nigerians to the danger posed to the peace and security, and indeed the corporate existence of Nigeria by the phenomenon, and the fact that each and every Nigerian has a role to play in curtailing the spread of fake news.”
Also, on August 4th, Mohammed unveiled the 6th Amendment to the National Broadcasting Code in Lagos State.
This time, the Code stipulates that those who fall foul of the provision of the broadcast code on hate speech shall pay a fine of N5m, which was raised from N500,000. According to the minister, this will compel media houses to scrutinise adverts and reports before publishing them. He said an offender who violates this law on three occasions will have the operating licence suspended.
The NBC on Thursday fined a radio station, Nigeria Info, N5m, for a recent comment made by a former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Obadiah Mailaifa during a broadcast by the station.
Nigeria Info was fined for alleged unprofessional broadcast,” according to the NBC management.