Lucky Obukohwo, Reporting
A coalition of civil society groups with the names Take It Back (TIB) and the Talakawa Parliament (TP) have staged a peaceful protest against the Cyber Crime Act, saying it is meant to muzzle the freedom of expression.
The coalition, in their numbers, besieged the Edo State House of Assembly (EDHA) with a banner with the inscriptions that read thus “Repeal/revoke the cyber crime act, threatening the voice of the people and end bad governance in Nigeria,
declare state of emergency on security and improve the economy”.
Addressing Journalists during the peaceful protest, Comrade Afiz Lawal, said that the Cyber Crime Act is meant to muzzle the mouth of Nigerians and to forbid them to speak truth to power.
He said there are a lot of issues begging for questions and attentions in the country, such as economic woes and insecurity and that nobody is addressing them but they are busy talking of cyber crime act.
Comrade Lawal further urged the federal government to channel their energy on those things that will benefit the masses rather than trying to suffocate them with the Cyber Crime Act.
Also speaking, the leader of the Talakawa Parliament (TP), Comrade Kola Edokpayi, decried the present state of the country alleging that some Nigerians are now eating from the “dustbin”.
He said that the Cyber Crime Act is to silence the citizens rights to freedom of speech as enshrined in the Nigerian Constitution.
Edokpayi said that the Nigerian leadership should channel their energy to improving the livelihoods of Nigerians and stop victimizing them.
He lamented that the country, instead of moving forward, it is moving backwards due to various anti-people policies.
He however called on the federal government to wake up to its duty of protecting lives and property of the citizens of the country rather than what it is currently doing.