The member representing Surulere Constituency 1 in the Lagos House of Assembly, Desmond Elliot, has debunked rumours that the lawmakers are working on a bill to regulate social media.
Earlier on Tuesday, Twitter was agog with tweeple claiming the Lagos Assembly is working on a bill to control the use of social media. The end product of the rumoured bill, some of them claimed, was to water down the shooting of #EndSARS protesters in Lekki.
#EndSARS protesters during a candlelight procession in honour of victims of police brutality.
But in a video on his Instagram page on the same day, the 46-year-old actor described the reports as “unfounded.”
“Please, I beg of you, I beg us. I beg everyone. This is not true, it is totally unfounded,” the actor who has featured in more than two hundred films, many television shows and soap operas, explained.
“Aren’t we going through a lot already? It is not true, period. No State House of Assembly, not one, has the jurisdiction to even deliberate or pass any bill like this; it is not possible.”
While explaining that the passage of such bill can only be done at the Federal level, the lawmaker added, however, that “every member (lawmaker) has a right to say something.”
He equally explained that he only called on celebrities and social media influencers not to use their platforms to promote hate particularly now that the country is going through a lot.
“The only thing I said towards social media was to the celebrities, social influencers and motivational speakers,” he stated. “I said, ‘listen, you have followers. Please, can we cut down on the hate narrative?’ Everyone is going through so much right now!”
Watch video:
