Kaduna State Governor, Nasir el-Rufai, says living outside
Kaduna State will not save people from prosecution if they spread
fake news about his state.
El-Rufai said this at the launch of a book titled, ‘Digital
Wealth”, by blogger, Japheth Omojuwa, in Abuja on Tuesday.
According to the governor, both persons who tweet fake news and
those who re-tweet risk being arrested if the effect of the fake
news leads to loss of life or pandemonium.
He noted that social media could be used for good and also for
evil and thus it would be wrong to look at only the negative
sides.
El-Rufai added, “We should not confuse freedom of expression
with freedom to kill. If you tweet something that is fake or you
tweet something that is reckless without checking and it leads to
the death of people, then you deserve to be tried at least as an
accessory before or after the fact of murder.
“In Kaduna State we have done that very aggressively because
there are things that have been put on social media that have led
to the death of people. So, we take it very seriously. You cannot
sit in Port Harcourt or Lagos and start posting stuff that leads to
societal instability in Kaduna and we let you go.
“We will file charges, we will go and collect you (sic) from
Port Harcourt or Lagos and bring you before a judge in Kaduna and
the judge will decide whether you are guilty. We’ve done that two
or three times. The people we have done this to are still being
prosecuted.”
The governor, however, promised that he would not interfere in
court processes.
“If you want to tweet something about Kaduna, be very careful
because I am watching,” he warned.
El-Rufai said he had been duly elected to protect the lives of
10 million people and would therefore not watch the state crumble
due to fake news.
He said the state also has strong laws against such cyber
recklessness.
The governor, who himself was accused of making hate speech in
the last election and in 2015, is no stranger to controversy.
During the run-up to the 2019 election, he threatened that any
foreigner that interfered in Nigeria’s elections would leave in a
body bag therefore sparking reports that he was among those placed
on a visa ban by the United States.
His government also sued a former Chairman of the National Human
Rights Commission, Prof. Chidi Odinkalu, who had accused El-Rufai
of exaggerating the killings in Kajuru for political gain.
In 2017, Audu Maikori, the chief executive of record company,
Chocolate City, was arrested by the police on charges of incitement
based on a petition by the Kaduna State Government attributed to
his tweet on killings in a town in southern Kaduna.
Maikori later retracted and apologised saying the information
was false.
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