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ABUJA— PRESIDENT Olusegun Obasanjo has forwarded an anti-terrorism bill to the National Assembly which provides, among other things, stringent sanctions  for the dissemination of true or false information that may intimidate the government or persons.

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The bill entitled Prevention of Terrorism Act, 2006 also provides stringent sanctions for activities such as kidnapping of oil workers and damages to installations of  companies operating in the country’s off shore waters.

The bill which is yet to come to the general notice of lawmakers was forwarded to the National Assembly last month as the National Assembly proceeded on recess  and is not due for consideration until the resumption of sitting later this month.

Though the bill seeks to prevent terrorist actions and give implementation to conventions entered by Nigeria on preventing terrorism or the financing of terrorism, there  were, however, fears that the bill could also be used to silence political opposition in the run-up to the 2007 general elections.

Section 2 of the bill which defines terrorist activities includes actions taken to unduly compel government or international organisations to perform or abstain from  performing any act. The definition of terrorism also includes actions that may seriously destabilise or destroy the fundamental, political, constitutional, economic or  social structures of a country or an international organisation.