The Kogi State government has told a Federal High Court sitting in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State that the publisher of www.naijalivetv. com, Saint Meinpamo, lied and deliberately caused ill-will towards the state government with his “false publication that the state government expended N7billion on a fallen tent which he referred to as an isolation centre.”

The commissioner for Information and Communications, Mr Kingsley Fanwo, stated this in Yenagoa while fielding questions from counsels during the commencement of trial of the blogger at the court. He said the publication was not only false, “but also generated ill will, unnecessary anxiety, public incitement, needless hate and tension in the State”.

His words: “I discovered a publication on www.naijalivetv. com on May 2, 2020, crediting a new story to the governor of Kogi State that he built a fallen COVID-19 isolation centre for N7 billion. To us, the report was not only false, but a deliberate incitement against the government and a big embarrassment to the government and people of Kogi State and myself as the chief information officer of the government.

“By the publication, the defendant caused ill will towards the State Government and public tension.

It portrayed our government as being corrupt, insensitive and irresponsible.

And he never verified the authenticity of the report before going to press to discredit the state government with the false information,” he said