Osun govt, APC bicker over committee on cyber bullying, crimes

The Osun state chapter of the APC described the resolve of Mr Adeleke’s administration to set up the committee as a plot to muzzle the opposition and other dissenting voices.

The resolve of the Osun State government to set up a cybercrime action committee on Sunday has generated ripples, as the state chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) described the development as a plot to suppress the opposition and silence dissenting voices against the administration of Governor Ademola Adeleke.

The state government had announced that the newly constituted cybercrime action committee will give effect to relevant provisions of the law with respect to cybercrimes, cyber bullying, and deliberate online false news.

In a statement by the Osun state Commissioner for Information, Kolapo Alimi, the government contended that “the step becomes necessary to sanitise the governance space and ensure that politicking and governance take place under an atmosphere of responsibility, decency and honesty.”

The statement posited that “the increasing wave of fake news negatively affects both the government and the opposition and that it is high time all operators are brought within the compass of the law in the exercise of their rights as guaranteed by the constitution.”

Mr Alimi further hinted that the committee, domiciled at the Ministry of Justice, had as members journalists and legal practitioners. He said its mandate was to ensure that fake news is nipped in the bud, no matter who the perpetrators are.

He stressed that the committee is to apply relevant sections of the Cybercrime Act of 2015 as operational clauses to ensure all stakeholders operate within the law in the exercise and enjoyment of their fundamental human rights.

However, the APC, Osun state chapter, has described the resolve of Mr Adeleke’s administration to set up the committee as a plot to muzzle the opposition and other dissenting voices.

Reacting to the development in a statement signed by its state chairman, Tajudeen Lawal, the APC argued that Mr Adeleke must be accountable for the management of the state’s resources and demonstrate capacity to bear responsibility for his actions.

The statement, endorsed by party’s director of media and information, Kola Olabisi, reads in part: “The plan was an afterthought aimed at planting fears in the mind of patriotic citizens who are bent on knowing why Governor Adeleke chose to award over N50 billion public road contracts to cybercafe operators, fertilizer distributors and cronies with no technical and professional competence to execute road projects.

“We cannot be cowed by any oppressive instrument as the APC would be battle-ready through legal means to confront draconian policies fashioned to repress the voice of the opposition in the state.”

The APC said that the governance of a state could not be handled as a family enterprise. It stressed that whoever is in the saddle should be accountable and transparent because the state resource is a common patrimony of all the people of the state.

“It defies logic that a governor who has been shielding from arrest his chief propagandist, who is wanted by the DSS for allegedly planting fake news about the son of the Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, Mr Femi Oyetola, is the one touting to curb cyber bullying,” the statement added.