The President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Olumide Akpata has faulted the restrengthened calls for regulation of social media by the federal government.
Akpata who admitted that there are people who are
“irresponsible” in their usage of social media, however stated that the timing
is wrong in an interview on Channels Television's "Sunday Politics".
He said;
“I struggle with the terms that we bandy around. Like I
said, I think the social media space is regulated already.
“Are we saying regulate or shutdown? What are we saying
because we hear them using regulate? We hear the minister of Information use
the word ‘sanitize.’ I just say to myself, ‘what are we trying to do?’ The
timing is suspicious.
“And if we need to tweak the laws here and there, as we
amend our laws every day to meet with issues that may come up that were not
previously contemplated, we are all well and good.
“But it is not throwing out the baby and the bathwater
approach like I suspect that is in contemplation by those who are handling the
levers of power today. That is not going to work.”
On setting up of panels of enquiry into the activities of
the disbanded Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), he stated that the governors
have the right to do so even though there are arguments about the legality of
the panels.
Akpata added;
“I think the governors are well within their rights or the
power of the law to set up those panels of enquiry for the purpose of
determining whether or not the now-disbanded SARS went beyond their remit;
whether or not the claims that we have from various Nigerians as to how they
were mistreated or illegally treated by SARS are correct."
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