Media Group Urges Federal Govt To Combat Insecurity By Tackling Fake News

The Muslim Media Watch Group of Nigeria (MMPN) has appealed to the federal government to combat insecurity in the country by tackling fake news alongside the menace of insecurity.

The group made the call yesterday in a statement signed by its national coordinator, Alhaji Ibrahim Abdullahi.

The group was reacting to the fake news and false report carried on the social media claiming that Bishop Mathew Hassan Kukah House, Cathedral and Catholic Pastoral Centre were set ablaze by Islamists in Sokoto on Saturday.

“This terrible fake news has since been denied by Bishop Mathew Hassan Kukah in an official disclaimer signed by Rev. Father Pascal Salifu – his director of Communications at the Sokoto Catholic Diocese. The military and security agencies have also denied the report,” it said.

The group described the report 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 against terrorists and other criminals, the group called on President Bola Tinubu to dismantle the Federal Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy if the functionaries in the ministry and agencies could not technologically pick purveyors of fake news through their postings; describing purveyors of fake news as terrorists who should be arrested and prosecuted promptly.

It 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.

The MMWG maintained that the 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 the country.