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Oluseye Ojo, Ibadan
The Archbishop, Methodist Church Nigeria, Ibadan Archdiocese, Most Rev’d Muyiwa Odejayi, has warned that the bill before the National Assembly, stipulating death penalty for hate speech is antithetical to development.
The bill sponsored by the Senate Deputy Chief Whip, Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi, representing Niger North, has already passed the first reading at the Senate.
He gave the warning in an interview with Sunday Sun in Ibadan, Oyo State capital, ahead of the sixth annual harvest of Diocese of Ibadan of Methodist Church, holding today (Sunday) at Agbeni Cathedral, Ibadan.
Odejayi described the bill as a grand design, probably to ensure people don’t react to issues that affect the nation, adding that the government was distracting itself with the hate speech palaver, instead of focusing on programmes that will make life meaningful to Nigerians.
According to him, “It is just like when you place an embargo on the press. There is an aspect, where you would expect the press to dwell on, or make comments on; probably you are not expecting them to comments on almost everything.
