Gov Adeleke Sets Up Cyber Crime Action Committee To Tackle Fake News In Osun

The Osun State Governor, Ademola Adeleke, has expressed grave concerns over the rampant spread of fake news targeting his government and opposition parties in the state.

Determined to address this issue, he has established a Cyber Crime Action Committee to enforce relevant provisions of the law regarding cybercrime, cyberbullying, and deliberate online false news.
In a statement signed by the Commissioner for Information, Kolapo Alimi, Adeleke stated that this step is necessary to sanitize the governance space and ensure that political discourse and governance occur within an atmosphere of responsibility, decency, and honesty.

The statement emphasized that “the increasing wave of fake news negatively affects both the government and the opposition and that it is high time all operators are brought within the compass of the law in the exercise of their rights as guaranteed by the constitution.

The committee, housed within the Ministry of Justice, comprises journalists and legal practitioners tasked with ensuring that fake news is promptly addressed, regardless of the perpetrators.

Alimi stressed that the committee would apply relevant sections of the Cybercrime Act of 2015 as operational clauses to ensure all stakeholders operate within the law while exercising and enjoying their fundamental human rights.

Section 24 (1) of the Cybercrime Act, 2015 reads: “A person who knowingly or intentionally sends a message or other matter by means of computer systems or network that is grossly offensive, pornographic or of an indecent, obscene or menacing character or causes any such message or matter to be sent, or he knows to be false, for the purpose of causing annoyance, inconvenience danger, obstruction, insult, injury, criminal intimidation, enmity, hatred, ill will or needless anxiety to another or causes such a message to be sent, commits an offence under this Act and is liable on conviction to a fine of not more than N7,000, 000.00 or imprisonment for a term, not more than three years or both”

The commissioner disclosed that the committee would hold its inaugural meeting on Monday, reaffirming Governor Ademola Adeleke’s commitment to good governance, due process, rule of law, and fear of God.