Flies in the Ointment

Fri, Mar 29, 2013
By publisher
2 MIN READ

Media

Central Bank of Nigeria decries attempts by some unpatriotic elements to use the social media to drive a wage between it and the National Assembly

|  By Maureen Chigbo  |  Apr. 8, 2013 @ 01:00 GMT

THE rate at which the social media is being used to peddle falsehood about government officials is becoming increasingly worrisome. Last week, the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, issued a statement disclaiming as fake, facebook and twitter accounts which are credited to Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, its governor. Such social media accounts carry abusive messages attributed to the CBN governor. One of such messages actually had Sanusi making inimical statements against the National Assembly.

The seriousness of the matter prompted Ugo Okoroafor, director, Corporate Communications, to state that “the bank’s attention has been drawn to various postings on social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter, and so on), purported to have been made by the CBN Governor, Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi.” The statement unequivocally said: “that the CBN governor currently has neither a facebook nor a twitter account; that any such account, purported to belong to the CBN Governor, is fake.” It added that “any such statement or post, purported to have been made by the CBN governor is false.”

According to CBN, in the last six months, there have been deliberate efforts by unknown elements to use the internet, with its social media extensions, to tarnish and malign the image and reputation of the CBN Governor.

“Efforts at tackling this menace had been yielding positive results as over 100 of these fictitious accounts had been closed with the collaboration of the Facebook authorities,” CBN said.

“Currently, there is a criminal case against one of the elements using these channels to defraud unsuspecting members of the public. The relevant law enforcement agencies have been duly notified of these developments,” it said. The bank, has therefore, urged members of the public to disregard these fake accounts and their false and malicious contents are calculated to deceive them, malign the reputation of the CBN governor and cause disaffection in the country.

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