Fred Itua, Abuja
A law to establish a National Commission for the Prohibition of Hate Speech has passed first reading on the floor of the Senate. The Bill is being sponsored by the the Deputy Chief Whip of the Senate, Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi.
The 8th Senate tried without success to pass the Bill in 2017. The same Senator Abdullahi had sponsored it.
Related: The hate-speech Bill
The lawmaker, who was the spokesman of the last Senate, had proposed a death penalty for people found guilty of Hate Speech. Following a nationwide outcry that greeted the move, however, the then President of the Senate, Bukola Saraki, blocked the consideration and passage of the Bill.
Although the details of the Bill is yet to be made public as at the time of filing in this report, there are claims that the death penalty proposed in the botched Bill may be smuggled in.