Pioneer Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commits (EFCC), Nuhu Ribadu has blamed most of the country\u2019s challenges on fake news peddled by social media.<\/p>\n
Ribadu said this in Abuja, while reacting to reports in the social media that he accused some top government functionaries of sponsoring banditry in the country.<\/p>\n
The former EFCC boss, who spoke at a\u00a0 news conference, said it was time for him to clear the air on the issue, which he said had been on for some time.<\/p>\n
\u201cJuly 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a piece of rubbish with very bad grammar and factual destruction but indeed very damaging.<\/p>\n
“I reacted very strongly after that, it didn\u2019t stop and I was forced again to issue a statement denying it.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought that would have been the end of it, but not long afterwards, it started coming back again and am worried and concerned,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
” 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are not being fair to us, and I think government has a duty and a responsibility to take action, nobody else can do it.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs private citizens,we have limited capacity to take action, government has to,\u201dRibadu said.
\nRibadu said it was the responsible of the state to take action in such situations.<\/p>\n
“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.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are not being fair to us, and I think government has a duty and a responsibility to take action, nobody else can do it.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs private citizens,we have limited capacity to take action, government has to,\u201dRibadu said.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
He added that a combination of government, established media outfits and social media companies could do something to address the situation.<\/p>\n
\u201cSocial media companies also have a role to play, I don\u2019t see any reason why Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram will allow such a damaging statement to go out against somebody without stopping it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Pioneer Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commits (EFCC), Nuhu Ribadu has blamed most of the country\u2019s challenges on fake news peddled by social media. Ribadu said this in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":86910,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-86909","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-other-news"],"yoast_head":"\n