The National Conscience Party (NCP) has condemned the Hate Speech Bill by the upper chamber of the National Assembly (Senate).
The party, through Comrade Omole Olusegun, the Special Assistant to its National Chairman, noted that the Bill has hidden agenda and must not be allowed by every well-meaning Nigerian.
This just as he noted, that the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) is in government as a result of freedom of speech in which the immediate administration allowed.
NCP further said that it rejects in its entity the passage of the Bill and called for immediate review of the Bill, which they said, is aimed at ‘killing Nigerians untimely’.
NCP also condemned the proposed Anti-Hate Speech Bill, which prescribed death by hanging for those found guilty of hate speech.
Such law it is, is an abuse of the legislative process that would violate Nigerian’s constitutionally guaranteed right to freedom of speech.
According to NCP, “We call on those behind this bill to awake to the fact that Nigeria’s current democratic dispensation has survived longer than previous eras because those who governed this great nation between 1999 and 2015 never toyed with this most fundamental of freedoms.
“We call on APC led government to be prudent to build upon the tolerance inherited from those years instead of introducing laws that would shrink the democratic space in order to satisfy personal and group interests.
“Freedom of speech was not just bestowed to Nigerians by the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended), it is also a divine right given to all men by their creator. History is littered with the very negative unintended consequences that result when this God-given right is obstructed by those who seek to intimidate the people rather than accommodate them”, the statement ended.
