The Federal Government, on Wednesday, appeared to distance itself from the bill under consideration in the Senate, which seeks the death penalty for hate speech, as it believes that laws already exist on the subject.
Briefing State House correspondents after a meeting of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) presided over by Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, had been asked to give the government’s perspective on the bill sponsored by former Senate spokesman, Abdullahi Sabi.
However, Minister of State for Transportation, Senator Gbemi Saraki, who joined the briefing chose to answer the question, saying that the Senate bill was a mere proposal.
She said that the fact that the bill prescribes death penalty does not mean it will necessarily pass like that
In any case, she said, the nation already has Cyber Crimes (Prohibition, Prevention, Etc Act, 2015) which takes care of hate speech.
She said: “Let me just address the issue on hate crime and the bill before the National Assembly. Like you rightly said it’s a bill, it’s not yet law. So, the sponsor of the bill might have might have put the death penalty there.
“I think we are jumping the gun a bit. Like you said, he is proposing the bill is not yet an act.
“Be that as it may, I think the Cybercrime Act, there is a law already in Nigeria, the cybercrime act that has the hate speech aspect in it…there is a law. I stand to be corrected.
“I think it was passed 2014/2015. I am not particularly sure but there is a law that takes care of… Because cybercrime is now a major issue and as you know internationally, the world over, everybody is concerned about it being the new frontier to fight crime.
“So hate speech is within that cybercrime aspect.”
