News

Social Media Contributing To Most Of Country’s Challenges – Ribadu

Published

3 years ago

Oct 11, 2021.

Ribadu blames most of the county’s challenges on fake news on social media
He denies accusing President Buhari and other top politicians of sponsoring bandits in Nigeria

Ekohotblog reports that a former chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commits (EFCC), Nuhu Ribadu, says social media is “partly responsible” for the country’s problems.

Mr Ribadu said this on Sunday in Abuja, while reacting to reports in the social media that he accused some top government functionaries of sponsoring banditry in the country, News Agency of Nigeria, NAN, reports.

“July 2019 was the first time I came out to know about it, and I came out with a very strong denial, saying that it was a fabrication and had no basis.

“It was a piece of rubbish with very bad grammar and factual destruction but indeed very damaging.

“I reacted very strongly after that, it didn’t stop and I was forced again to issue a statement denying it.

“I thought that would have been the end of it, but not long afterwards, it started coming back again and I am worried and concerned,” he said.

Mr Ribadu said globally, people who were worried and concerned and wanted to fact-check had been getting in touch with him, adding that he had continued to respond to the issue every single day.

“I want to again deny in the strongest terms and send a message to everybody to disregard the statements, it is not fair, it is not just.

“It is very sinful for you to create something from nowhere and attribute it to an innocent person who doesn’t know anything about it, I have nothing to do with that message.

“This is my strongest denial, everybody should please disregard the statement: it is not from me, it is not true,” Mr Ribadu stressed.

The pioneer EFCC chairman said it was the responsibility of the state to take action in such situations.

“Social media is today, partly responsible for what is going on in our country by trying to promote things that are not true and creating division based on religion and ethnicity among others things.

“They are not being fair to us, and I think the government has a duty and a responsibility to take action, nobody else can do it.

“As private citizens, we have limited capacity to take action, the government has to,” Mr Ribadu said.

He said whoever was responsible for accusing him of such lies, was being very unfair and unjust to him and had hurt him a lot.

He, therefore, called on owners of social media to do something to protect innocent people from suffering unjustly because of lies told against them on their platforms.

He added that a combination of government, established media outfits and social media companies could do something to address the situation.

“Social media companies also have a role to play, I don’t see any reason why Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram will allow such a damaging statement to go out against somebody without stopping it.

“Even though I had denied it and so many people in the same situation did, WhatsApp, Facebook and Twitter still allowed it to be moved around from one platform to the other.,” he said.

Mr Ribadu said he did, however, had great regard for the print media and established television stations which he noted had refused to be part of peddling fake news like most social media.

He said it was unfortunate that some persons out of nowhere, would create a lie and innocent people would consume and believe it.

He noted that a lot of people acted on fake news which had caused them a lot of danger.

Advertise or Publish a Story on EkoHot Blog:

Kindly contact us at [email protected]. Breaking stories should be sent to the above email and substantiated with pictorial evidence.

Citizen journalists will receive a token as data incentive.

Call or Whatsapp: 0803 561 7233, 0703 414 5611