Death of  kogi PDP woman leader burnt alive must not be swept under the carpet-Group

 Emmanuel Adeyemi, Lokoja

An international NGO, Centre for Information Technology and Development has urged president Muhammad Buhari to ensure that he diligently followed to the end the prosecution of those held for the death of the Kogi PDP woman leader, Mrs  Acheju Abuh to serve as a deterrent to others.

Mrs Abuh was burnt alive along with her house in Ochadamu on Nov 17 by people suspected to be political thugs as a fallout of the Kogi Governorship election held the previous day.
The Centre, while decrying the level of violence and hate speech especially against women in Nigeria, said a society where the weaker sex or vulnerable people are not being protected can not grow.

The centre said over 387 cases of hate and dangerous speech instances have been tracked across parts of the country in last November.
Addressing newsmen on Thursday in lokoja,, the coordinator countering hate speech project, Hamzat Ibrahim said the speech incidents were tracked by trained monitors across the country through two Social media platforms namely Facebook and Twitter.

He said the analysis established that the hate speech incidents occurred via textual, video, pictorial and symbolic forms through both Facebook and Twitter.

Ibrahim said out of the 387
captured speech incidents, 32% were ethnic-based, 26% election-related, which he said was a departure from what was recorded before three months  ago which had religious-based hate speech at the top of the list

The NGO noted that hate speech has done disastrous damage to people, communities and countries as it breeds and waters c  prolong hatred which has to be tackled now.

While appealing to Social media users to be extremely careful about their posts and reactions, it urged them not to share, comment or like anything that could generate hatred or undermine the peace of the society.
The organization specifically called on traditional rulers and other community and opinion leaders in Kogi state to support campaigns against hate speech and violence against women by cautioning and enlightening their followers against the danger inherent in it.