THE Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, made a perfect hit last week when it chose the platform of the Social Media Week which held in Lagos from February 22-26, 2016, to draw the attention of netizens to the Cybercrime Act which was signed into law in May 2015.
Addressing a very youthful population who mostly live their life in the cyber ecosystem, the Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission, Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta charged them to acquaint themselves with the contents of the Act in order to be properly guided in their cyber operations.
Speaking through Mr Tony Ojobo, Director, Public Affairs, at the main stage event, Danbatta observed that the Cybercrime Act has become law since May last year; it was therefore imperative for New Media practitioners to familiarise themselves with the contents of the law as it affects their practice. Pointing to various sections of the Act, he explained that the Act does not encumber freedom of expression as erroneously believed but instead it seeks to protect those whose freedom may be damaged by the freedom freely expressed by others.
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For instance, Section 24 of the Act, Danbatta pointed out, deals with Cyber stalking and prescribes punishment for “Any person who knowingly or intentionally sends a message or other matter by means of computer system or network ” which, among others, “he knows to be false, for the purpose of causing annoyance, inconvenience danger, obstruction, insult, injury, criminal intimidation , enmity, hatred, ill will or needless anxiety to another or cause such message to be sent: Commits an offence under this Act and shall be liable on conviction to a fine of not more than N7, 000, 000. 00 or imprisonment for a term of not more than 3 years or to both such fine and imprisonment.”
In addition to Danbatta’s paper, the Commission raised a team of technocrats and industry practitioners to help bring more understanding to the document which everybody agreed is still very fresh in the public domain. In fact a blogger who was one of the first victims of the Act and spent some weeks in Ikoyi prisons while waiting to perfect his bail, threw the gathering into some bout of laugher when he informed that his lawyers were arguing over the existence of the Act even as he was being shepherded to his temporary home.