By Bukola Kayode
Sultan of Sokoto, Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar III, has expressed concern over the use of social media to spread fake news and hate speech.
He described social media as a “terrorist organisation,” while speaking during the 7th Executive Committee meeting of the Northern Traditional Rulers’ Council in Maiduguri, Borno State.
The monarch, a retired Army General urged security agencies to treat social media platforms with the same seriousness as other threats to national security.
“Social media is one terrorist organisation,” the Sultan said. “Somebody can sit in the comfort of their home and formulate stories and you will consider that it is true. Social media is a terrorist organisation that we must deal with. Security agencies must deal with this terrorist organisation called social media.”
The Sultan also expressed worry over the upsurge in violence and killings in Plateau and other parts of the country, calling on political leaders and security agencies to take urgent and decisive action.
He said: “Our coming together as traditional rulers in the North, I believe, we have more than 86 in the North. We will speak with one voice to say ‘enough is enough’ of this senseless killing of innocent people across the North and the country”.
The Sultan criticised the repeated issuing of condemnation statements without results and emphasised the need for practical steps to end the violence.
“We, the traditional rulers, feel bad and saddened when our people are killed by people we don’t know. It’s high time we worked harder, talked to ourselves and in a closed-door meeting, discuss it. We shall advise our political leaders, they are at the helm of affairs and we will work with them,” he added.
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