Hate bill will gag free speech — Lawyer, Reps

A lawyer, Mr Stanley Imhanruor, has described the bill seeking the establishment of Hate Speech Commission pending before the Senate as an audacious move to gag free speech in the country.

Imhanruor said in a statement on Wednesday that the bill which, provides various degrees of punishment for offenders, contravenes the principle of plurality of opinions and views on good governance in a democracy.

He said, “Nigerians across all divides must put their differences in limbo and unite to kill the Hate Speech Bill.

“Forget the niceties, the bill is an audacious attempt to gag free speech and suppress dissent.

“Democracy is all about plurality of opinions and views on good governance and the exercise of political power.

“As it is with every political move, the sponsor of the bill and his enablers cleverly sold a dummy to Nigerians by proposing death penalty in the bill.

“The death penalty clause is a political master stroke designed to keep Nigerians busy as to what should be the appropriate punishment and then lose focus on the reality that the bill should not even be allowed in the first instance and by the time the dust settles, they will say okay, we will remove the death sentence clause since Nigerians are only against that clause and smoothly pass the bill into law.”

He expressed fear that President Muhammadu Buhari  might not “hesitate for a minute to sign this kind of bill into law for obvious reasons”.

He added, “And before you say Jack, we have a Frankenstein monster on our hands and everyone would have been done in 100 per cent.”

Imhanruor said the removal of death penalty provision from the bill was a decoy that must not discourage Nigerians from continuing to reject the bill.

He said, “The bill is a disaster waiting to happen. The bill is not in our national interest. Removing the death penalty clause is a decoy and we must not fall for it. The entire bill must be given a decent burial now before it gets to the table of the President for his ready-made assent.

“This is the time for everyone of us to look out for the contacts – including the social media handles of our representatives in the National Assembly and lawfully harass them to kill the bill.

“If you wait for your representatives in the National Assembly to call for a meeting in your localities to harness your views in relation to the Hate Speech Bill you may have to wait forever.

“Go look out for their social media handles and get them to stand against the bill. It is your right to so do and the heavens will not fall.”

Meanwhile, more members of the House of Representatives have expressed their opposition to the controversial Hate Speech Bill.

Member of the House representing Akure-North/South Federal Constituency of Ondo State, Adedayo Omolafe, in a statement on Wednesday described the bill as “an absolute balderdash and a devilish attempt to bring back the old dark days.”

The Vice-Chairman, House Committee on Poverty Alleviation, said, “I am compelled by my position as a representative of my people to say that I considered the bill as a subtle attempt to turn the nation into a totalitarian state where the state will have the absolute prerogative to determine which statement is true or false and define hate speech at will.

“There is no gainsaying that this bill is a gross violation of human right to freedom of speech and information. I can, therefore, concur that the bill is ill-motivated and it is a sharp target to silence constructive criticism which is the hallmark of democratic rule and good governance.”

However, the lawmaker representing Okene/Ogiri-Magogo Federal Constituency of Kogi State, Yusuf Tijani, while speaking to journalists in Abuja on Wednesday, said though the proposal was necessary to check persons who might want the country to disintegrate through hateful speeches, he was against the death penalty included in the bill.

He said, “So, we need to look at it holistically and let’s see where it will benefit the country. But where it will not, then we kick against it.”

The member representing Jos-South/Jos-East Federal Constituency of Plateau State, Dachung Bagos, had on Monday said the controversial bill would be dead on arrival if the Senate passed and transmitted the legislation to the House.

Bagos had said members of the House were already mobilising against the bill, stating that the existing laws covered the objectives which the proposal sought to achieve.