A man identified as Kelvin Uwelenfo Aburimen was recently arrested over his social media posts considered to be against the government.
It was gathered that Kelvin Uwelenfo Aburimen has been campaigning against the ruling party, the All progressive congress (APC).
He was tracked through his Facebook page, arrested and locked up, where he suffered severe punishment, as he was not charged to court.
His arrest was said to have been allegedly masterminded by a stalwart of the party but he was later granted conditional bail.
In 2018, Kelvin Uwelenfo Aburimen was re-arrested for continuously posting comments considered to be abusive of the leader of the ruling party, and government officials, including the president and his cabinet members.
The mastermind of the arrest was alleged to have told Kelvin Uwelenfo Aburimen that he would be killed because he has not desist from posting hate speech against the leadership of the party and the government.
His second arrest however was said to have come with grievous punishment and a serious threat to his life. A source said the person that masterminds the arrest is putting a plan in place to ensure that he’s detained in the cell until the new hate speech bill, which passed its first reading two weeks ago is signed into law and then used it to prosecute him.
However, Kelvin Uwelenfo Aburimen was released again on bail through the help of some influential people, but the bail didn’t stop the threat to his life.
President Muhamadu Buhari-led government has been greeted with much criticism as many citizens have been abusing the president and his cabinet members in the last one year, especially via social media.
The development has prompted the government to come up with what is termed hate speech bill with serious penalties for anybody that is found guilty of the offense.
The bill proposes that “A person who uses, publishes, presents, produces, plays, provides, distributes and/or directs the performance of any material, written and/or visual, which is threatening, abusive or insulting or involves the use of threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour” commits an offence. Offenders, according to the bill, will be severely punished and some offenders will die by hanging, depending on the weight of the offense.
Also, for offences such as harassment on grounds of ethnicity or race, the offender shall be sentenced to “not less than a five-year jail term or a fine of not less than N10 million or both.”
