Akwa Ibom Assembly Denies Outrageous Bill to Jail Women Over Married Men!

A viral social media post claiming that the Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly is planning to pass a law jailing women for sexual relationships with married men has been categorically dismissed as false and misleading. The post, reportedly shared by Facebook user Obiavel Albert Abigo, alleged that Deputy Governor Sen. Akon Eyakenyi was sponsoring the bill, which supposedly would punish women with 10 years in prison and impose a ₦2 million fine on men. But the House has hit back hard. In a strongly-worded statement on Monday, Jerry Otu, Chairman of the House Committee on Information, described the report as a “fabrication with no legislative basis”. He emphasized that the Assembly has never received, discussed, or considered any such bill, and that the Deputy Governor has no involvement whatsoever. “This is a malicious attempt to tarnish the image of both the Deputy Governor and the House of Assembly,” Otu said. “We urge the public to disregard this fake news and any commentaries circulating alongside it.” Otu further reassured citizens that the House remains firmly committed to its constitutional role of lawmaking, and warned that such mischievous reports will not undermine its integrity or distract from its legislative duties. This incident highlights the growing problem of viral misinformation, particularly on social media, where outrageous claims can spread faster than facts. The Akwa Ibom Assembly’s prompt rebuttal is a reminder to always verify news before sharing, especially when it concerns sensitive issues that can damage reputations.

Fake News Nearly Destroyed my 40-year-old marriage -Lai Mohammed

A former Minister of Information and National Orientation, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has recounted how fake news circulated on social media nearly destroyed his 40-year-old marriage. The ex-minister shared his story during an event in Lagos commemorating Prof. Wole Soyinka’s 90th birthday, where he discussed “The Media in the Age of Disinformation.” The text of Mohammed’s presentation was made available to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Saturday. Mohammed, also serving as the Managing Partner of Bruit Costard, a lobbyist and public relations firm, reflected on one of the significant challenges he encountered during his tenure as minister: the rampant spread of fake news, misinformation, and disinformation. Mohammed emphasized that fake news, disinformation, and misinformation nearly destroyed his marriage, highlighting their extensive consequences. He said, “Permit me to share publicly with you today for the first time, how social media threatened the foundation of my 40-year-old marriage. “It was sometimes in 2018 when I came to Lagos from Abuja for an official assignment. “As usual, I retire to bed about midnight, but about 3 am., my wife gently roused me from my slumber. “At first, I panicked, fearing that there had been a security breach, but my wife’s mien belied that possibility, for she was calm and composed.” He continued: “Solemnly, my wife asked me if I was fully awake as there were some serious issues to discuss. “I could not fathom what was that urgent or serious to warrant being woken up at this time of the night. “My mind immediately did a kaleidoscope of my rascalities and escapades in the last few months”. Mohammed said the accusation from his wife was “a bombshell” and was narrated to him in Yoruba language. He presented the narration as follows: “Daddy, death can come knocking at any moment, please let me also, as your wife, be a signatory to your overseas account in Ali Financial which contains 1.3 billion dollars.” The ex-minister expressed disbelief that his wife fully believed the false story circulating about government officials, including himself, supposedly having large sums of money in overseas accounts during former President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration. “I spent the next two hours or so, sweating to convince my wife that there is no iota of truth in the allegation “I had to fetch a calculator and reproduce the Federal Appropriation Act for 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018 in the middle of the night and explain to her why it is simply preposterous for me to have 1.3 billion dollars in a foreign account. “I explained to her that there is no year my capital budget exceeded N5 billion, which then, at about N400 to a dollar, was just 12.5 million dollars. “I explained that, even if I managed to divert every kobo of it to my personal account, it will take at least, 104 years to save the sum of 1.3 billion dollars being peddled that I stole,” he said. Mohammed added: “My wife insisted that the whole world believed the story and that her friends had, as a result, besieged her with all kinds of requests. “She said every effort on her part to deny the existence of this foreign account only succeeded in depicting her in the minds of her friends as a selfish, greedy and uncaring friend. “Is my wife truly convinced of my innocence? The answer is in the wind!. “ Mohammed reiterated that social media remained the platforms of choice for the purveyors of fake news, anti-state groups, anarchists, secessionists, terrorists and bandits. During his time in government, Mohammed remembered that his ministry uncovered 476 online publications solely dedicated to disseminating fake news against the previous administration of President Buhari. Mohammed specifically remembered the fake news claiming that the former president had passed away while undergoing treatment in a London hospital and had been replaced by a clone named “Jubril from Sudan.” According to Mohammed, the

November Polls: INEC Cautions Political Parties Against Peddling Fake News

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has cautioned political parties against spreading fake news, ahead of the November 11 Bayelsa, Kogi and Imo governorship elections. Mr Rotimi Oyekanmi, the Chief Press Secretary to the INEC chairman stated this in a statement in Abuja.Oyekanmi was reacting to a statement by the Social Democratic Party (SDP) that INEC was configuring Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machines at the Government House, Lokoja, with the intention of manipulating the state governorship election.“The attention of INEC has been drawn to a statement signed by ID Ijele, the Director of New Media of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) of the governorship campaign team.“The statement alleged that three staff of INEC are right now maliciously reconfiguring the BVAS machines in the Government House, Lokoja, with the intention of manipulating the Nov.11 governorship election in a part of the state in favour of a candidate. “The story is untrue. The three persons mentioned are not associated with the configuration of the BVAS machines and not even in Kogi at the moment. “Nicholas Ocholi is on his duty post in our Ondo State office in Akure.“Ibrahim Egbunu is attending to a very close family member hospitalised in Abuja, Mohammed Adara retired last year and is no longer a staff of the commission,” Oyekanmi said.He said that the configuration of BVAS was done simultaneously and exclusively in INEC offices in Bayelsa, Imo and Kogi by teams deployed from the national headquarters, Abuja. “The public is advised to disregard the story as fake news. “At the same time, the commission appeals to political parties to desist from engaging in malicious rumour mongering of this nature,“ Oyekanmi said. 

Niger Crisis: Guarding our minds against information warfare and perception manipulation

When we see a sleekly produced video with subliminal political overtone like the “Yoruba” woman on a viral video showing President Tinubu sleeping in the background, making an emotional plea about the plight of Yorubas in Niger, please keep your wits about you and be vigilant and know that you are being subjected to perception manipulation by AI and deep fake. The woman who claims she is more Nigerien than a Nigerian and that she is a foreigner in Nigeria should be told to stay her butt in her native country Niger, and let the president who Nigerians have elected to take the hard decisions on our behalf to do his job. History and the electorate will hold him accountable for the outcome of his decisions. That is why he has been hired, to take all the information in his possession and the experts serving on his national security council into account, to make the hard choice. He has the intelligence report most of us do not have access to. Yes, we can exercise our civic responsibility to let him know where we stand, but international crisis management is not conducted by taking polls but by data. Don’t let us be manipulated by crass emotionalism and social media hyperventilating when it comes to the ongoing Niger crisis. We must remember that complex international issues such as a military junta in Niger, and a clientele state run by Putin’s Wagner mercenaries, with which we have no real geographical nor cultural border, represents a present, imminent and existential danger to our country. None of us is getting the security and intelligence report that is on the desk of the president in Aso Rock, so we are not in the position to know the dynamic at play in the Niger crisis. Yes, Mr. Tinubu as the president of Nigeria and the Chairman of ECOWAS is the face of the Niger crisis, but we must remember this is a crisis of dire international and geopolitical implications and there are many actors involved, including the ECOWAS, the African Union, the UN, the Western powers and of course Russia. So the notion that piling pressure on President Tinubu like many are erroneously assuming, will cause him to deviate from what intelligence report is guiding him to do, shows naïveté about the complicated dynamics of international crisis management like the contagion of military coups that is spreading and rampaging the Sahel region, and that is inching towards our homeland. They are not issues that can be resolved by the maddening appeal to emotionalism on Nigerian social media. No one wants war. However, sleeping with one’s two eyes closed when you have a raging lion at one’s doorstep is neither a smart thing to do. The Nigerian social media and especially WhatsApp, is consumed by fear mongering about impending war and dooms day prediction about how the ragtag Niger military will make a mince meat of the Nigerian military. That is nothing but an empty posturing and fear-mongering. We must realise that behind the scenes, frenetic diplomatic, economic, and political pressures are now being applied to the juntas to make them see reason. Russian propagandists have seized on this crisis to portray the Nigerien coup plotters as anti-imperialists who are seeking to liberate Niger and the entire African continent from under the yoke of France imperialism, neo-colonialism, economic servitude and exploitation. What a pile of hogwash. Would a true anti-imperial regime go to bow before and kiss Putin’s ass like the young lad leader from Burkina Faso did, when like a school boy before his dad condescendingly gave his rousing support for the Ukraine war and then begged the Russian leader, that he is willing to open Burkina Faso economy to the Russian with no strings attached? He then made the ridiculous request to Putin to come and build a nuclear plant in impoverished Burkina Faso. We all could see the flag of Russia flying all over Niger, Mali, and Burkina Faso. Are those the kind of actions that a Thomas Sankara whose image all the three military leaders are invoking would take? On the contrary, by their naive posturing, it can be said that they are frankly desecrating the values that their fabled hero stood for. If anything, they are merely selling to us their selfish lust for power as the long awaited African revolution to free the continent from servitude to France and other Western powers. Record has it that the coup leader in Niger, General Tchiani has been a member of the Nigerien political class that has enjoyed the spoils of power and that have been serving the imperialists’ interest of their France overlords for decades as the head the presidential guards. He, in fact, crushed another coup against President Bazoum just days to his inauguration in 2021. Reports have it that the reason he struck with a coup was because he was about to be booted out of his position of power and influence. All of a sudden, he is now the liberator and Thomas Sankara of Africa. What a desecration of that sacred name and of the legacy of Shankara, one of the greatest leaders to walk the surface of Africa. We must remember that we are fighting on social media against information, disinformation, and propaganda warfare, and against a force that is a thousand times smarter, more nimble, and more adaptable than us. Artificial intelligence and deep fake. AI can gobble through trillion bytes or data and use it to manipulate our thought process and perception. That is what is happening with the Niger coup with the massive amount of auditory and visual information manipulation and disinformation that is coming at us like the great flood of Noah. We must guard our brains and minds against this powerful enemy that is seeking to mess with our minds and perception of reality like the woman in the sleekly produced video whose intent is to tug at our heart strings. Don’t let us