Cybercrime Act 2015 Amendment Bill Scales Second Reading in Senate

A bill seeking to amend the Cyber Crimes Act, of 2015, has passed second reading in the Senate.

The bill titled: “A bill to amend the Cyber Crimes Act, 2015 and for Matters Connected Therewith, 2023, sponsored by Senator Shehu Buba (PDP, Bauchi), is seeking to among other things, correct errors contained in the principal act and empower the National Security Adviser(NSA), to monitor compliance with provisions of the Act.

It was read for the first time on Wednesday, 18 October, 2023.

Leading the debate on the proposed amendments during Wednesday’s plenary, the sponsor of the bill, Shehu Buba, said the proposed amendment was designed to remove encumbrances to the proper implementation of provisions of the Act.

Buba said, “This Bill seeks to amend Section 44 as well as the long title to insert some consequential omissions from the act.

“The digital and information technology age has created new avenues and tools for committing traditional crimes and new forms of crimes.

“The architecture of the digital world challenges law enforcement institutions and the criminal justice system to device measures and procedures to contend with digital or cybercrimes.

“ In Nigeria, there had overtime been a significant increase in internet-based advance fee fraud.

“There are cases of hacking into emails, websites and infringement on privacy rights of persons and institutions which call for an urgent solution.

“Legislation on advance fee fraud is among the earliest interventions by the Nigerian Government on cybercrimes, but the law is inadequate to meet the intricacies of technological development. “

He further said, “The most recent statute on cybercrimes in Nigeria is the Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention etc.) Act, 2015.

“The vaunted objectives of this Act include the provision of an effective and unified Legal, regulatory and institutional framework for the prohibition, prevention, detection, prosecution and punishment of cybercrimes in Nigeria.

“The Act is designed to ensure the protection of critical national information infrastructure and to promote cyber security, protect computer systems and networks, electronic communications, data and computer programs, intellectual property and privacy rights.

“This Bill seeks to address all anomalies that has hindered the effective implementation of the Act. Over the years, since the enactment of the Cybercrime Prohibition, Prevention etc.) Act 2015, there has not been compliance with the provision of Section 44(2) (a) of the Act.

“That the noncompliance may not be unconnected with the ambiguity associated with the wordings of the said subsection in that the figure 0.005 does not reflect the true intendment of the draftsmen.

“The true intendment is for the figure to read 0.5% (i.e half percent) of all electronic transactions value by the businesses specified in the Second Schedule of this Act and does not carry with it percentage sign neither has it any provision that will compel compliance or sanctions provision on defaulting parties in the event of noncompliance.

“It is with this amendment that the businesses specified in the second schedule to this Act will enable the complying party’s credit the Fund with that which is the intendment of the draftsmen under Section (1) of Section 44 of this Act.

“Equally, there has not been any ‘Compliance Monitoring System” in Sub section 6(a) of the Section 44 of the Act.

“The National Security Adviser will ensure Compliance Monitoring System in making credit to the Fund by the specified businesses in the second Schedule.

“Similarly Mr. President, Distinguished Colleagues, is the slight amendment of the long title by Changing Cybercrime Prohibition to Cyber security.

“Realigning legislative efforts with the objectives of the current National “Security Strategy 2019.

The national strategy has expressly defined and embedded Cyber security as one of the major components of a comprehensive.

“National Security Architecture to help safeguard, protect, defend national economic, political, and security infrastructures, advance national digital well-being, and to deter and react with both defensive and offensive capabilities cyberspace.

“Realigning with National Cybersecurity Policy and Strategy on Nigeria Cyber Threat Profile – over 7 major cyber threats are classified as being inimical to national security and economy.

“Cybercrime is just one of them, not the main threat. Other classified are Cyber Terrorism & Terrorist Use of the Internet child online use and exploitation, online gender exploitation, elections interference, espionage, advanced persistent threats, and wide-scale digital economic infrastructure weakness and vulnerabilities among others.”

The legislator explained that the current title of the bill does not reflect this reality as well as all other major threats.

According to him, “Using CYBERSECURITY & RELATED MATTERS as the title of the bill reflects, communicates, and motivates the nation’s overall intent comprehensively.

”I therefore appeal for your support for the passage of this Bill”.

He appealed for the support of his colleagues to enable the bill to undergo further legislative action.

After taking the constrictions of his colleagues, Deputy President of the Senate, Barau Jibrin, sought and received the approval of his colleagues to refer the bill to the Committee on National Intelligence and Security.