Kaduna State Governor, Nasir el-Rufai, has said fake news peddlers living outside Kaduna State will not be spared if they spread false news about his state.
El-Rufai made this known at the launch of a book titled, ‘Digital Wealth”, by blogger, Japheth Omojuwa, in Abuja on Tuesday.
El-Rufai said persons who tweet fake news and those who re-tweet risk being detained if the effect of the fake news leads to loss of life or pandemonium.
He averred that social media could be used for good and also for evil and thus it would be wrong to look at only the negative sides.
El-Rufai added, “We should not confuse freedom of expression with freedom to kill. If you tweet something that is fake or you tweet something that is reckless without checking and it leads to the death of people, then you deserve to be tried at least as an accessory before or after the fact of murder.
“In Kaduna State we have done that very aggressively because there are things that have been put on social media that have led to the death of people. So, we take it very seriously. You cannot sit in Port Harcourt or Lagos and start posting stuff that leads to societal instability in Kaduna and we let you go.
“We will file charges, we will go and collect you (sic) from Port Harcourt or Lagos and bring you before a judge in Kaduna and the judge will decide whether you are guilty. We’ve done that two or three times. The people we have done this to are still being prosecuted.”
During the build-up to the 2019 election, the governor threatened that any foreigner that interfered in Nigeria’s elections would leave in a body bag therefore sparking reports that he was among those placed on a visa ban by the United States.
In 2017, Audu Maikori, the former chief executive of record label, Chocolate City, was arrested by the police on charges of incitement based on a petition by the Kaduna State Government attributed to his tweet on killings in a town in southern Kaduna.
Maikori later withdrew and apologised saying the information was false.