person who makes allegation or publishes any statement or petition in the newspaper, radio or medium of whatever description against another person, institutions of government or any public
office holder, passed second reading in thee Senate, yesterday.
The bill also prescribed that anybody or group of persons who send any false text message or poste false message on the social media againstr another person shall be jailed for two years upon
conviction by the law court.
The bill, tagged: “A Bill for an Act to Prohibits Frivolous Petitions and other Matters Connectedh therewith”, sponsored by Senator Ibn Na’Allah,
APC, Kebbi South, compels petitioners to
accompany their petitions with sworn courtt affidavit, failure of which attracts a six- montht imprisonment upon conviction.
But the bill provides for an option of N4 million for persons convicted of false newspaper, radio andn television statements and N2 million for offenders
of false phone text messages or messages on Facebook, twitter, Instagram, or WhatsApp.
“Where any person in order to circumvent this law makes any allegation and or publish anyt statement, petition in any paper, radio, or anym medium of whatever description, with malicious
intent to discredit or set the public against anyn person or group of persons, institutions oft government, he shall be guilty of an offence andn upon conviction, shall be liable to ant imprisonment term of two years or a fine of N4,000,000.00”,the bill specified.
The social media, the bill read: “Where any
person through text message, tweets, WhatsApp
or through any social media post any abusive
statement knowing same to be false with intent
to set the public against any person and group of
persons, an institution of government or such
other bodies established by law shall be guilty of
an offence and upon conviction, shall be liable to
an imprisonment for two years or a fine of
N2,000,000.00 or both fine and imprisonment.”
The bill said it shall be an offence for any petition
to be submitted without a sworn affidavit from
the law court.
“Not withstanding anything contained in any law,
it shall be an unlawful to submit any petition,
statement intended to report the conduct of any
person for the purpose of an investigation, inquiry
and or inquest without a duly sworn affidavit in
the High Court of a state or the Federal High
Court confirming the content to be true and
correct and in accordance with the Oaths Act.
“Any petition and or complains not accompanied
by a sworn affidavit shall be incompetent and
shall not be used by any government institution,
agency or bodies established by any law for the
time being enforced in Nigeria.
“Any person who unlawfully uses, publish or
cause to be published any petition, complaint not
supported by a dully sworn affidavit shall be
deemed to have committed an offence and upon
conviction, shall be liable to an imprisonment for
six months without an option of fine.
“Any person who acts, uses, or cause to be used
any petition or complaints not accompanied by
dully sworn affidavit shall be deemed to have
committed an offence and upon conviction, shall
be liable to an imprisonment for a term of two
years or a fine of N200,000.00 or both, “the
petition read.
Senator Na’Allah, in his lead debate, during the
plenary, where he sought support for accelerated
consideration of the bill, said: “Our past has
portrayed us as a society where by mere
expedience of writing a frivolous petition against
public officials, you can have their right abused
by taking certain measures that practically took
away their right of presumptions of innocence
only to be found later that the petition, as strong
as it appears, on the paper actually lacks merit.”
“This sometimes, lead to a lot of innocent and
most times honest civil servants being taken
away from the public service only to be replaced
by the dishonest ones, which invariably lead to
the draining of the public service of civil servants
with the desired integrity to move this country
forward simply on grounds of principles.
“As a nation with strong desire to move forward,
this negative trend must be reversed, if only the
desired objectives of the country,” he stressed. He
added: “the bill which appears ‘sunset’ in its
nature consists of four sections which in clear
terms spelt out the punishment for frivolous
petition, and what constitutes frivolous petition.
“The bill seeks to provide punishment for frivolous
petitions by making sure that only credible and.
Verifiable petitions are presented for public use.
“The utility of the bill is to equally save the time
for good governance and resources that go into
investigating frivolus petitions.The bill would
equally assist in shaping our negative thinking by
elevating hard work over and above sychophancy
and indolence,”he further explained.
“The question to ask is, whether having passed
the Freedom of Information Act which gives
unfettered access by the public information from
government offices they would be right for this
government to continue to waste valuable time
and resources in investigating frivolous petitions
from the same public and I am sure you would
find no difficulty in saying no to the ugly
situation,”he stressed, while soliciting support for
its consideration.
Vanguard
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