By Olugbenga Salami
A non governmental organization, the Muslim Media Watch Group of Nigeria, MMWG, has charged the Federal Government to shift attention to addressing insecurity in the country by tackling fake news by suspected criminals.
The group was reacting to the fake news and false report carried on the social media claiming that Bishop Mathew Kukah’s House, Cathedral and N1 billion Catholic Pastoral Centre were set ablazed by Islamists in Sokoto on Saturday.
In a statement signed by the MMWG national coordinator, Ibrahim Abdullahi, and released on Sunday, the group informed that the report has since been denied by Bishop Kukah himself in an official disclaimer signed by his Director of Communications at the Sokoto Catholic Diocese, Rev. Father Pascal Salifu.
It added that the military and security agencies have also denied the report, and therefore, described it as not only false, but “irresponsible and highly condemnable.”
While calling on the military and other security agencies to advance their operations from reactive to proactive onslaught against terrorists, bandits, insurgents and kidnappers, the group called on President Bola Tinubu to scrap the Federal Ministry of Communications & Digital Economy if its managers, including those in its agencies cannot technologically pick purveyors of fake news through their postings.
Describing purveyors of fake news as terrorists who should be arrested and prosecuted promptly, MMWG said the circulated video about Sokoto Catholic Diocese attack was recorded three years ago and has no bearing with the fake report they circulated.
The group noted that the federal ministries, departments and agencies were established to tackle problems facing the masses, failure of which they risk their continued existence.
It added that the Anti-Cyber Crimes Act, 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, lamenting that strong legislations that could checkmate fake news are available to punish culprits but arrests are not 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 like Sokoto, Kebbi, Zamfara, Borno, Katsina, Niger, Kwara and others that have porous borders with neighbouring countries 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 we are facing in Nigeria.”
“Unless we promptly arrest and prosecute posters of fake news and false reports, insecurity will persist in Nigeria (God forbid),” it stated.
It would be recalled that the Catholic Diocese of Sokoto had in official disclaimer signed by its Director of Communications, Rev. Fr. Pascal Salifu denied the setting ablaze of Bishop Kukah’s house, Cathedral and N1 billion Catholic Pastoral Centre by Islamists in Sokoto.
“We wish to inform the general public that this information is totally false.
“The Bishop’s residence, the Cathedral, and the Catholic Pastoral Centre in Sokoto remain safe, intact, and fully operational.
“This video started circulating in the wake of the brutal murder of Deborah Yakubu, a student of Shehu Shagari College of Education, in Sokoto, May 2022. This is the work of persons committed to causing havoc in our society.
“The Bishop expresses gratitude to the military and state security agencies who responded immediately the video started circulating,” the statement reads, adding that “Sokoto remains calm and peaceful.”
