LAI MOHAMMED ASSERTS THAT FAKE NEWS ENDANGERS THE GENERAL ELECTION.

Three weeks before the 2023 general elections, Lai Mohammed, the minister of information and culture, condemned the rising tide of false information and misinformation sweeping social media.

He claimed that despite official warnings to crack down on those who spread false information, the tendency has reached an industrial level.

At the 21st session of the Presidential Scorecard series, held at the National Press Centre in Abuja, the minister made these remarks while addressing guests before to the presentation of the Minister of Industry, Trade, and Investment, Niyi Adebayo.

Mohammed threatened to make sure decentralization agents do not thwart the success of the elections and pointed accusing fingers at the opposition.

“Please allow me to make a brief comment about the escalating wave of fake news and disinformation affecting particularly the social media space leading up to the General Elections before I introduce our special visitor to the stage,” he added.

Remember, ladies and gentlemen, how I stated in the fourth installment of this series on November 22 that fake news and misinformation pose an immediate threat to the elections and pose a serious risk to their integrity. And we emphasized this once more on December 14, 2022, during the 12th episode.

“With just over three weeks until the February 25 presidential and national assembly elections, I can state unequivocally that the use of fake news and disinformation has worsened and increased astronomically, posing a clear and present danger to the success of the elections.

“There is little doubt that some agents of instability, some of whom are connected to the opposition, are responsible for this escalation. They are producing false information and fake news on a massive scale.

Their only objective is to undermine the electoral system. I’ve always said that this government won’t sit idly by and let few thugs with access to data and phones destabilize the nation.

“I am advising those who spread false information to stop doing so. Being intelligent, the government cannot be powerless.

“We have options to checkmate the use of fake news and disinformation, and looking at the best solutions to ensure that agents of decentralization do not undermine the success of the elections.”