An appeal has gone to Federal Government in Nigeria to combat insecurity in the Country by tackling Fake-News along with the menace of insecurity.
Muslim Media Watch Group of Nigeria made this appeal today in a Press Statement signed by it’s National Coordinator Alhaji Ibrahim Abdullahi in Ilorin.
The Group is reacting to the Fake-News and false report carried on the social media claiming that ‘Bishop Kukah House, Cathedral and One Billion Naira Catholic Pastoral Centre were set ablazed by Islamists in Sokoto’ yesterday.
The Islamic Organization explained that this terrible Fake-News has since been denied by Bishop Mathew Hassan Kukah himself in an official disclaimer signed by Reverend Father Pascal Salifu, his Director of Communications at the Sokoto Catholic Diocese.
The Muslim Media Watch Group of Nigeria therefore described the report as not only false but irresponsible and highly condemnable.
It called on the Military and other Security Agencies to advance their operations from reactive to proactive onslaught against terrorists, bandits, insurgents and kidnappers.
the Group charged President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to dismantle the Federal Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy if Functionaries in the Ministry and Agencies cannot technologically pick purveyors of Fake-News through their postings.
It described purveyors of Fake-News themselves as terrorists who should be arrested and prosecuted promptly.
The Group said the video circulated by the criminals that posted Sokoto Catholic Diocese attack fake news, was recorded three years ago and has no bearing with the fake report they circulated.
MMWG maintained that Federal Ministries, Departments and Agencies were established to tackle problems facing the masses, failure of which they risk their continued existence.
The Group maintained that Anti-Cyber Crimes Act of 2015 that was further amended in 2024 by the National Assembly is sufficient to deal with unpatriotic and destructive elements posting fake news to promote insecurity in Nigeria.
The Organization maintained that strong legislations that could checkmate Fake-News are available to punish culprits but regretted that the laws are not used because arrests are not being made.
While not ruling out political motives for spreading false reports, MMWG believes that politicizing insecurity is high unpatriotic and destructive, calling for urgent steps from Federal Government to stem the tide by ordering arrest of criminals whenever they commit the crime.
The Group said all Northern States in Nigeria that have porous borders with neighbouring Countries like Sokoto, Kebbi, Zamfara, Borno, Katsina, Niger, Kwara and others must be secured by the Military and other Security Agencies to ward-off continued insecurity; while the known habitat of criminals terrorising innocent citizens must be smashed and terrorists killed to put a STOP to insecurity in Nigeria.
