BBOG Group Kicks Against Anti-Social Media Bill

The #BringBackOurGirls(BBOG) group has joined other Nigerians to condemned the purported bill to moderate the social media by the National assembly, describing it as unjust and unfortunate.
Speaking during the normal sit-out of the group, one of the members Okenwa Nyeribe stated that stated that such bill if passed was aimed at stifling the voices of the citizens of the country and should not be allowed to see the light of the day.
“It is an unjust law aimed at stifling the voice of the citizens. When anyone feels he has been slandered, the person should go to court. There is no reason people should be trampled upon. Citizens should be allowed to express their views. It is injustice to the people. No one should shut down the social media on us.

“We can’t even track phone calls. We can’t track the movement of our citizens that have been abducted by the insurgency. And people are talking about controlling and gagging the social media? It is rather unfortunate. The senate should concentrate on something more important for the nation like providing unemployment to the teeming youths in the country.
Also speaking, one of the leaders of the group, Aisha Yesufu urged Nigerians not to sit down in their homes and allow impunity and coruption to continue to rear their ugly heads in the country, urging them to arise and speak against any form of injustice against the Nigerians.
“It is not even about the bill, it is about the Nigerian people. We allow our leaders to do whatever they want and get away with it. That is the reason they come up with such bills. When there is freedom of speech, why will they come up with such bill?,” he said.
It will be recall that after the outcry on the issue of the purported bill, the senate president, Bukola Saraki had in a press release stated that the bill was not aimed at controlling the social media or jailing social media users for two years.
“The bill being made reference to, is An Act to Prohibit Frivolous Petitions and Other Related Matters, which absolutely makes no mention of jailing social media users.
“Senator Na’Allah’s bill seeks to make illegal, the common act of individuals sponsoring frivolous petitions to tarnish/blackmail public servants or political office holders for selfish purposes.
“The bill also seeks to make it a requirement for petitioners to depose to an affidavit in court which will must be attached to any petition. Where such petition is discovered to be frivolous, or mischievous or the fact there in are false, the proposed bill makes it a case of perjury which is an offense under the law,” it had stated.
Meanwhile, the group has expressed sadness over the silence of the government especially after the reported abduction of more girls in the country and other activities of the insurgency, urging government to stop taken the lives of the citizens for granted.
“If citizens are missing and you don’t do anything about it, it shows that their lives are not valued. We don’t value life in Nigeria. We can’t keep saying we are great when we keep looking at our fellow Nigerians as slaves. It has to stop,” it said.