Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) have ordered a clampdown on purveyors of fake information in the social media, especially those regarding activities of the corps.
Abdullahi Gana Muhammadu, Commandant-General of NSCDC, who spoke through his Media Assistant, Soji Alabi, in Abuja, gave the order at the weekly management meeting of the Corps, noting that NSCDC would surely collaborate with the military to achieve the target.
Alabi said the CG “read the riot act to those who specialise in posting offensive, provocative and disparaging statements on the social media that their time was up as measures were being taken by his administration to arrest and make those found culpable to face the full weight of the law.”
He said: “The CG made reference to recent postings making the rounds in the social media that the Commandant-General was responsible for withholding cooperative deductions for three months and used it to pay the salary of the newly replaced personnel, and another one that stated that the Federal Government has approved the recruitment of 10,000 graduates and 30,000 non- graduate personnel for Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps which were severally refuted by the appropriate authorities but still going viral.
“This abuse of social media has not only caused embarrassment to the Corps, but has also cast aspersions on the person of the Commandant-General and is seen as a diversionary measure to dissuade him from carrying out his responsibilities.
”The Commandant-General informed that the perpetrators of these ignoble acts are members of the Corps with their external collaborators and he will stop at nothing to track them and bring them to justice. The relevant units within the Corps have been mandated and mobilized to deploy their internal mechanisms while not ruling out the collaboration with the Nigerian military to monitor the social media for anti-Corps, anti-government and anti-security communication and track them.
“He has also directed all Deputy Commandant Generals, Zonal Commanders, State Commandants, Area Commanders and Divisional officers to be on close watch and monitor events in their areas of responsibility and report appropriately.
“While the Commandant-General welcomes constructive criticisms and maintains an open-door policy, he frowns at the abuse of the social media and believes that the social media should be used positively to help government and security agencies to fight crime, promote good governance and share information”.
Alabi noted that one of the major priorities of the Commandant-General upon assumption of duty was personnel welfare, saying apart from sponsoring over 10,000 personnel on intensive training programmes both at home and abroad in the last two years, the NSCDC boss has also ensured that salaries of personnel are paid promptly and other allowances are paid directly into their accounts, while uniforms and other kits were provided for them.
