TheCable

Nasiru el-Rufai, governor of Kaduna state, on Wednesday said hate speech and fake news were the biggest threats to national security, calling for the arrest of those found wanting.

The governor said this when he received Anthony Alolagbe, the new commander of ‘Operation Safe Haven’, a military task force, in Kaduna.

“There is need to curtail the emerging trend of using social media to create crisis in the country,” he said.

“I think collectively we have to fight it and discourage those behind it by arresting and prosecuting them.”

El-Rufai said social media had been used to incite people to violence in the state, but warned that the government would not condone that anymore.

“In this state, we will not allow anyone engage in propagation of hate speech and fake news; there is provision in the penal code in Kaduna state that deals with that,” he said.

He, however, expressed satisfaction that Nigerians were “becoming more aware of the dangers hate speech, fake news and the abuses on social media pose to the peace, unity and stability of this country”.

El-Rufai told the commander that his administration was working closely with all security agencies to sustain peace in the state.

“There are still challenges, but with the intervention of army and police it has been curtailed to some extent,” he said.