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On Could 15, 2015, President Goodluck Jonathan signed the Cybercrime (Prohibition, Prevention) Invoice into regulation. The intention was to deal with the rising issues of cyberstalking, cybersquatting, computer-related fraud, forgery and cyber-terrorism.
The Act was a direct legislative response to the rising price of fraudulent actions, notably on social media or what some consultants have described as the brand new media. The regulation, for the primary time within the nation, gives a unified authorized, regulatory and institutional framework for the prohibition, prevention, detection, investigation and prosecution of cybercrimes in Nigeria.
One of many circumstances that triggered the enactment of the regulation was the 2012 grotesque homicide of an undergraduate scholar of the Nasarawa State College, Cynthia Osokogu, who was lured to Lagos from Abuja by some criminals who stalked her on a social media platform, Fb.
She was robbed, drugged, raped, assaulted and strangled to demise in a resort. The prison who perpetuated the callous act has been sentenced to demise by hanging by the Lagos State Excessive Courtroom.
Since then, incidents of stalking have multiplied and in response to stakeholders, the rising dependence on technological devices for communication and the quilt they offer to criminals has made cyberstalking a typical factor in Nigeria.
The Act, which has been amended by the Nationwide Meeting following some considerations expressed by some native and worldwide organisations on its infringement on freedom of expression and freedom of the press, was signed into regulation by President Bola Tinubu on Thursday, February 28, 2024.
Part 24 gives that “Any one who knowingly or deliberately sends a message or different supplies via a pc system or community that’s grossly offensive, pornographic or of an indecent, obscene or mincing character or causes any such message, matter to be despatched or he is aware of to be false, to trigger annoyance, inconvenience, hazard, obstruction, insult, damage, prison intimidation, enmity, hatred, ill-will or pointless anxiousness to a different or causes such a message to be despatched “is responsible of an offence and upon conviction carries a extra vital penalty of N7 million or imprisonment for a time period, no more than three years.”
With the world changing into more and more digital, the specter of cyberstalking has grown exponentially, leaving authorities and authorized consultants scrambling to maintain tempo with the evolving nature of this severe violation of privateness.
The speedy improve in cyberstalking circumstances has raised vital authorized implications, prompting stakeholders to reexamine present legal guidelines and insurance policies to make sure enough safety for victims.
Cyberstalking has turn into rampant in Nigeria as some folks for no matter causes are making use of the web and different applied sciences to harass, threaten and defame different folks on-line.
This on-line harassment will be within the type of emails, textual content messages, social media posts and it could possibly be persistent particularly when it has to do with defamation of character and false accusation.
Often, the content material directed on the goal is commonly inappropriate and typically even disturbing, which might depart the individual feeling fearful, distressed, anxious and frightened as a result of it entails blackmail.
The perpetrators typically touch upon or like all the things the focused particular person posts on-line. Additionally they create faux accounts to comply with the goal on social media, sending messages repeatedly and in excessive circumstances hacking into the goal’s on-line accounts and typically trying to extort intercourse.
In accordance with the chief govt officer of GreyHub Therapeutic Centre, Dr Olusola Olowookere, cyberstalking, often called ‘on-line stalking or cyberbullying’, refers back to the repeated use of digital communication to harass or threaten a person, inflicting worry or emotional misery.
Olowookere instructed LEADERSHIP Sunday that in Nigeria, a survey performed by the Nationwide Bureau of Statistics (NBS) discovered that 37 per cent of web customers have skilled some type of on-line harassment or cyberbullying.
Olowookere listed frequent sorts of cyberstalking in Nigeria as harassment via social media, e mail or messaging platforms in addition to impersonation and spreading false data.
“In accordance with a research by the Centre for Cyber Consciousness and Growth, roughly 20 per cent of Nigerian youths have been victims of cyberstalking or on-line harassment,” he revealed.
In latest occasions, many Nigerians have begun to discover the provisions of the Cybercrime Act to hunt redress in opposition to on-line prison defamation and bullying.
On August 2, 2023, Justice Nicholas Oweibo jailed a girl, Okoye Blessing Nwakaego for 3 years for the social media bullying of a well-known Nollywood actress, Eniola Badmus.
Nwakaego was convicted for inflicting the transmission of a communication through Tiktok, gossip millTV, Treatment Weblog and different social media networks together with her cell line quantity. This communication was discovered to be grossly offensive and false for inflicting damage, prison intimidation, enmity, hatred, and pointless anxiousness to Eniola Badmus.
Additionally on November 7, 2023, Justice Nathaniel Ayo-Emmanuel of the Federal Excessive Courtroom sitting in Osogbo, Osun State, jailed six males for cyber-stalking and defrauding former speaker of Osun State Home of Meeting, Timothy Owoeye, of the sum of N38 million.
The convicts, Kazeem Agbabiaka, Rasheed Ojonla, Babatunde Oluajo, Adebiyi Kehinde, Femi Oseni and Oyebanji Oyeniyi have been arraigned earlier than the courtroom on October 19, 2018, on 5 counts bordering on conspiracy, advance-fee fraud and cyber-stalking.
In his judgment, Justice Ayo-Emmanuel mentioned the convicts operated like an internet of syndicates, subjecting their victims to hardship and deserved no leniency.
Nonetheless, the police have been accused of utilizing part 24 of the Cybercrime Act to harass and intimidate journalists. For instance, on August 22, 2019, a journalist, Agba Jalingo, was arrested in Lagos by law enforcement officials over allegations that he had dedicated offences below the Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention, and so forth.) Act of 2015, the Terrorism (Prevention Modification) Act of 2013, and the Legal Code Act.
Additionally in Could 2021, Sunday Odeh, a state home correspondent of Folks’s Day by day, an Abuja-based newspaper, was arrested by officers of the Nigeria Police Power allegedly on the orders of the Benue State Authorities. Odeh’s offence was his Fb criticism of ex-governor Samuel Ortom over how he dealt with a communal battle within the state.
The scenario has degenerated to the extent the place social media critics and journalists are arrested and detained anytime they publish something thought-about offensive to high authorities officers and public figures.
Similar to each regulation, the Cybercrime Act has its constructive and unfavorable sides. Attorneys, journalists and civil society teams have known as on the federal authorities to both drop or repeal the regulation or amend it to erase the fears and considerations expressed by the general public.
In a latest assertion he issued in Lagos, human rights lawyer, Femi Falana (SAN) known as for the discontinuance of all pending circumstances filed on Part 24 of the Cybercrime Act 2015, including that the Financial Group of West African States (ECOWAS) Courtroom, had declared Part 24 of the Cybercrime Act 2015 unlawful.
Falana additionally mentioned that the ECOWAS Courtroom had additionally directed the federal authorities to amend the part to evolve with the rights of Nigerians to freedom of expression.
The lawyer additionally insisted that it has turn into unlawful to arrest journalists for cyberstalking, insulting, inflicting annoyance, offensive messages and prison intimidation.
Chatting with our correspondent on the implications of cyberstalking and the cures to them, a famend ICT knowledgeable, Hanniel Jafaru mentioned “Cyberstalking is a severe matter and needs to be so handled in response to the Cybercrime Act.”
Reacting to the low degree of consciousness of the Cybercrime Act because it pertains to cyberstalking, the knowledgeable mentioned “the reality is that the majority individuals should not conscious that cyberstalking has been criminalised by the act, so there’s want for enlightenment.”
He famous that the police have the obligation to implement the regulation which falls below the Nationwide Cybercrime Centre, an company below the Police, which is headed by a commissioner of police, Henry Uche.
In accordance with the knowledgeable, the federal government ought to develop programmes that resonate with the youth for them to remember that cyberstalking is a prison act.
A marketing consultant within the cybercrime sector, Sadiq Nasir, instructed LEADERSHIP Sunday that cyberstalking is a up to date downside that requires dynamic and fashionable options whilst he known as on the Nigerian authorities to arrange exact regulatory devices to deal with this difficulty.
He added that cyberstalking is a really advanced and dynamic downside, stressing that there needs to be extra consciousness about it.
“If extra folks understand it, it’ll result in a decline within the act. I really feel some individuals who commit this crime don’t know what they’re doing; it’s important to carry this to their consideration and allow them to perceive the implications of such behaviour.
“We additionally have to have the identical dialog with our indigenous film industries. The extra films this and its impact, the extra consciousness is created.
“The notice should be unfold on a number of platforms corresponding to social media, radio, TV and posters. It shouldn’t be achieved in English alone; it needs to be achieved in the preferred languages in Nigeria corresponding to damaged English, Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba,” he mentioned.
Influence on Victims
In the meantime, Olowookere, who can also be a marketing consultant psychiatrist posited that victims of cyberstalking in Nigeria typically expertise psychological misery, together with anxiousness, melancholy, and emotions of helpless states.
Analysis performed by the Ladies’s Rights Development and Safety Different (WRAPA) revealed that cyberstalking might result in social isolation and hinder victims’ means to take part in on-line actions.
“Victims typically expertise heightened anxiousness and worry as a result of fixed surveillance and invasion of privateness. The persistent harassment and feeling of being continually watched can result in emotions of helplessness and melancholy. They might turn into paranoid and lose belief in others, together with family and friends, as they could not know who the stalker is or who they will speak in confidence to.
“Additionally, victims could withdraw from social actions and isolate themselves to keep away from additional harassment. The continuing trauma of cyberstalking can result in signs much like PTSD, together with flashbacks, nightmares, and hypervigilance. Victims could expertise bodily signs corresponding to complications, insomnia, and gastrointestinal issues as a result of stress of being cyberstalked.
“Cyberstalking can pressure relationships with buddies, household, and romantic companions, as victims could really feel ashamed or embarrassed to debate their experiences or could inadvertently contain family members within the harassment. Victims could have problem specializing in work or college as a result of fixed distraction and stress brought on by cyberstalking, resulting in decreased productiveness and efficiency. General, cyberstalking can have profound and long-lasting psychological results on its victims, typically requiring skilled help and intervention to manage and get well,” he said.
Prevention And Safety
Whereas Nigeria’s Cybercrime (Prohibition, Prevention, and so forth) Act, 2015, criminalises cyberstalking and gives penalties for offenders, together with fines and imprisonment, Olowookere lamented that enforcement of those legal guidelines stays a problem as a consequence of restricted consciousness and sources.
Olowookere due to this fact known as on Nigerians to guard themselves on-line by being cautious about sharing private data, utilizing privateness settings on social media platforms and reporting cyberstalking incidents to related authorities.
He maintained that organisations just like the Nigerian Communications Fee (NCC) present sources and help for victims of cyberstalking, together with helplines and authorized help and urged victims to utilise these platforms when bullied.
The psychiatrist averred that societal elements corresponding to gender inequality and lack of digital literacy contribute to the prevalence of cyberstalking in Nigeria, whereas advocating for initiatives aimed toward selling gender equality and offering entry to digital expertise coaching to mitigate the danger of cyberstalking.
“Little doubt, cyberstalking poses a major menace to people’ security and well-being in Nigeria. By elevating consciousness, strengthening enforcement of cybercrime legal guidelines, and empowering people with digital literacy expertise, we will create a safer on-line atmosphere for all Nigerians.
“Nigerians ought to educate themselves about cyberstalking, help victims, and advocate for insurance policies that tackle on-line harassment in Nigeria,” he added.
A cybersecurity knowledgeable and lecturer on the College of Lagos, Dr Ifeoma Adibe-Chukwuka, emphasised the significance of digital literacy in stopping cyberstalking, including that “Training and consciousness are key to empowering people to recognise and reply to cyberstalking threats.”