The President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Olumide Akpata, has condemned the Federal Government’s move to regulate social media usage.

This comes after Nigeria’s Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, told newsmen on Saturday, October 31, that the Federal Government plans to regulate the use of Social Media.

The Minister noted that the move was imperative to curb the spread of hate speech and fake news from Nigerians.

Akpata, while speaking to Channels TV on Sunday Night, November 1, said the timing is ‘wrong and suspicious.’

“I struggle with the terms that we bandy around. Like I said, I think the social media space is regulated already.

“Are we saying regulate or shutdown? What are we saying because we hear them using regulate? We hear the minister of Information use the word ‘sanitize.’ I just say to myself, ‘what are we trying to do?’ The timing is suspicious,” Akpata said.

The NBA President, while acknowledging that there are people who are ‘irresponsible’ in their usage of social media, he said Nigeria has laws to deal with such kind of individuals.

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“And if we need to tweak the laws here and there, as we amend our laws every day to meet with issues that may come up that were not previously contemplated, we are all well and good.

“But it is not throwing out the baby and the bathwater approach like I suspect that is in contemplation by those who are handling the levers of power today. That is not going to work,” Akpata said.

Reacting to different State Government’s decision to set up judicial panels of enquiry on Police brutality, Akpata noted that the Governors are well within their rights to do so.

“I think the governors are well within their rights or the power of the law to set up those panels of enquiry for the purpose of determining whether or not the now-disbanded SARS went beyond their remit; whether or not the claims that we have from various Nigerians as to how they were mistreated or illegally treated by SARS are correct,” he said.

Recall, Eons Intelligence on Thursday, October 29, reported that Lagos Legislator, Hon. Desmond Elliot, received condemnation from several Nigerians for his comments on the use of social media.

The veteran Nollywood actor had pushed for the anti-social media bill in the Lagos State House of Assembly but has vehemently denied it.

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Elliot, who urged social media influencers and celebrities to stop spreading hate via social media, called on Nigerians to use their Permanent Voter Cards, PVCs, to change Government when necessary.