No Plans to Hurriedly Pass Social Media Bill—Senate

By Dipo Olowookere

The Nigerian Senate has denied media reports that it was planning to hurriedly pass the controversial Social Media Bill despite the resistance from residents of the country.

Spokesman of the upper legislative chamber of the National Assembly, Mr Ajibola Basiru, in a statement on Sunday, described the report as “false and a lie concocted to ridicule and tarnish the image of the Senate.”

A popular online media platform, SaharaReporters, had claimed that the upper parliament was making an underground move to pass the bill, which many in the country have said it was an attempt to gag the fourth estate of the realm.

But Mr Basiru, while reacting to the issue in the statement, said the report was just another “example of irresponsibility taken too far,” noting that there has not been any recommendation for passage of the bill by the Senate.

According to him, the relevant committee of the Senate has not submitted its report for the bill to be passed at all or surreptitiously as claimed by SaharaReporters.

He emphasised that the Senate conducts its sittings in the open and matters for consideration are well laid out and, therefore, would not require anyone’s investigation to ‘dig’ out what the Senate would do.

The Senate’s mouthpiece said it wondered why the media organisation is afraid, noting that it was not doing any good to the nation through “its recklessness and incredulity.”

“The Senate wishes that Nigerians will be circumspect, shunning gullibility which makes them lap up those invidious write-ups and begin to comment on non-existent issues.

“If some people have chosen the path of perfidy wanting to bring the nation and its sacred institutions down, Nigerians must be wary and unwilling to be led by those to believing the false fabrication,” the statement said, adding that, “We will not allow unscrupulous writers to denigrate the Senate and ridicule the great work that is on-going.