Death penalty for hate speech obnoxious — PDP

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has condemned in its entirety what it described as savage, repressive, cruel and murderous intents of the hate speech ‘prohibition’ bill, which seeks stringent punishment, including death by hanging as penalty.

The PDP in a statement yesterday by its National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan said as much as it does not condone hate speech under any guise, it rejects the bill as unconstitutional, undemocratic and a barbarous design targeted at official extermination of voice of dissent and perceived opponents of the All Progressives Congress (APC)-led federal government.

The party said the nation already had enough constitutional provisions and extant laws to safeguard a sane and healthy public expression space and cannot allow such cruel law allegedly devised to victimize and persecute the citizens, ostensibly as a regime protection measure.

The party pointed out that the provisions of the bill are deliberately hazy and nebulous with the malicious intention to victimize innocent Nigerians.

“Such laws can only find space in Hitler’s Germany, Mussolini’s Italy, Idi Amin’s Uganda and not in this era or in a democratic state such as Nigeria.

“The resurfacing of the cruel bill in the Senate, after Nigerians vehemently rejected it last year, only points to the incurable desperation of the APC Federal Government to suppress and crush the will of the citizens at all cost

“Such obnoxious laws are characteristics of known anti-democratic regimes, as prelude to their suspension or abolition of constitutional provisions to set the stage for totalitarianism,” the party said.