A bill seeking a two-year jail term for any person who makes allegation or publishes any statement or petition in the newspaper, radio or any other medium against another person, institutions of government or any public office holder, passed second reading in the Senate, yesterday. It provides for an option of N4 million fine for the aforementioned offences.
According to the bill, anybody or group of persons who send any false text message or post false message on the social media against another person shall be jailed for two years upon conviction by the law court with an option of N2 million fine.
The bill, tagged: “A Bill for an Act to Prohibit Frivolous Petitions and other Matters Connected therewith”, sponsored by Senator Ibn Na’Allah (APC) Kebbi South, compels petitioners to accompany their petitions with sworn court affidavit, failure of which attracts a six-month imprisonment upon conviction.
“Where any person in order to circumvent this law makes any allegation and or publish any statement, petition in any paper, radio, or any medium of whatever description, with malicious intent to discredit or set the public against any person or group of persons, institutions of government, he shall be guilty of an offence and upon conviction, shall be liable to an imprisonment term of two years or a fine of N4,000,000.00,” the bill specified.
On the social media, the bill read: “Where any person through text message, tweets, WhatsApp or through any social media post any abusive statement knowing same to be false with intent to set the public against any person and group of persons, an institution of government or such other bodies established by law shall be guilty of an offence and upon conviction, shall be liable to an imprisonment for two years or a fine of N2,000,000.00 or both fine and imprisonment.”
The bill said it shall be an offence for any petition to be submitted without a sworn affidavit from the law court.
“Not withstanding anything contained in any law, it shall be an unlawful to submit any petition, statement intended to report the conduct of any person for the purpose of an investigation, inquiry and or inquest without a duly sworn affidavit in the High Court of a state or the Federal High Court confirming the content to be true and correct and in accordance with the Oaths Act.
“Any petition and or complains not accompanied by a sworn affidavit shall be incompetent and shall not be used by any government institution, agency or bodies established by any law for the time being enforced in Nigeria.
“Any person who unlawfully uses, publish or cause to be published any petition, complaint not supported by a dully sworn affidavit shall be deemed to have committed an offence and upon conviction, shall be liable to an imprisonment for six months without an option of fine.
“Any person who acts, uses, or cause to be used any petition or complaints not accompanied by dully sworn affidavit shall be deemed to have committed an offence and upon conviction, shall be liable to an imprisonment for a term of two years or a fine of N200,000.00 or both.”
Senator Na’Allah, in his lead debate, during the plenary, where he sought support for accelerated consideration of the bill, said: “Our past has portrayed us as a society where by mere expedience of writing a frivolous petition against public officials, you can have their right abused by taking certain measures that practically took away their right of presumptions of innocence only to be found later that the petition, as strong as it appears, on the paper actually lacks merit.”
“This sometimes, lead to a lot of innocent and most times honest civil servants being taken away from the public service only to be replaced by the dishonest ones, which invariably lead to the draining of the public service of civil servants with the desired integrity to move this country forward simply on grounds of principles.
“As a nation with strong desire to move forward, this negative trend must be reversed, if only the desired objectives of the country,” he stressed.
According to him, “the bill which appears ‘sunset’ in its nature consists of four sections which in clear terms spelt out the punishment for frivolous petition, and what constitutes frivolous petition.
“The bill seeks to provide punishment for frivolous petitions by making sure that only credible and. Verifiable petitions are presented for public use. “The utility of the bill is to equally save the time for good governance and resources that go into investigating frivolus petitions.The bill would equally assist in shaping our negative thinking by elevating hard work over and above sychophancy and indolence,” he further explained.
“The question to ask is, whether having passed the Freedom of Information Act which gives unfettered access by the public information from government offices they would be right for this government to continue to waste valuable time and resources in investigating frivolous petitions from the same public and I am sure you would find no difficulty in saying no to the ugly situation,” he stressed.
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6 Comments
We’re in big trouble as a nation with this crop of lawmakers.These people are really clowns and entertainers who have no business being in the hallowed chambers, for any reason at all, making laws for us. How can they be talking of a bill to deny our fundamental right to freely express ourselves on national and related issues,just because by so doing more and more ordinary people get to know their shenanigans?Someone should tell them that,as long as they’re part and parcel of the government of the day,we expect them to synergize with the executive in brain storming and working our way out of the present economic fix.They should begin to think and articulate possible solutions to our common problems beyond the business of legislation,which does not count for much to everyday people.It should not be the individual and exclusive responsiblity of the executive;making the country work and improving the economy and lives,by extension, is a collective responsibility of all those serving in government, it does not matter the arm where you’re in service. Common on, you guys should get creative ,constructive and innovative with your intellects and be real problem-solvers that you’re expected to be, not problem-creators,that you have proven to be.Till date, we cannot generate enough energy for household consumption,much less industrial use,even with the multi-billion dollars claimed to have been spent on power, yet we keep talking of industrialization; the standard of our public education is on a free fall, with dilapidating physical infrastructure and underfunding the new features,while the government feels indifferent and the privileged few in it are busy sending their wards abroad for top-quality and better education;companies are shutting down and laying off en masse in the face of self-made recession while the leadership and legislature are helplessly watching and doing nothing;inflation has run circles around most households,especially, those with fixed incomes,diminishing their living standard by over 50%, to the point that they can’t afford the minimum necessaries of life today;the list of our woes is endless. Instead of making legislations on these problems their priority focus, they’re busy thinking of how they could stop free speech and information sharing on the social media. Which other country has such a law? I visit many foreign online media forum and I see what citizens of come countries say about their governments and leaders,even worse things than Nigerians are saying,yet we have not heard or read there’s any legislation underway to curtail them.You can’t blend democratic and communist ideals/practices, the two run counter.Mind you,ours is not a China- or North Korea-style regime.
fine, we agree but what will happen to those who steal from the government???????
you are all thieves and hypocrites. i guess this is an allegation too, please take me to jail
Over the bar. Because you guys are scared of peoples’ reaction to bad governance, right? You don’t want to face the shame of out-rightly banning the freedom of speech again, so you’re trying to take an indirect step?… That’s brilliant and let’s see how that works hehehe
Its the in Power that is the problem of this Country, not the masses. Can I asked you the lawmaker, tell me the total number of people that has been taking away our Resources to other countries apart from them are in power? Please create law to them in power and leave the masses alone!. How did EFCC, ICPC, and ETC comes about? These comes as a result of failed people in power by thieving our country resources, and they don’t want the learned masses to talk about it in there own ways through abusing and criticizing them.
I don’t think a civilized world like Nigeria can subdue to such tricks, because people in power has been the problem on ground. Look even a deaf know the problem of this country, that is the people in AUTHORITY.
Another decree 4? Is this Nigeria’s problem? I believe there are already enough laws in our statute books to take care of frivolous petitions. Hunger is killing our people; those who are fortunate to escape hunger must be jailed for complaining against the ruling class. Mind you, veiled in this proposed law is serious persecution against religious expression which some might want to interpret as attack against their own faith. This law is not needed. It should be thrown out. We need laws on how to better the existential conditions of our teeming masses not those designed to stifle opposition.
This is unbelievable in a 21st century democracy like Nigeria