By Silver Nwokoro
Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has sued the Federal Government and state governors at the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Community Court of Justice sitting in Abuja over alleged repressive use of Cybercrimes (Amendment) Act 2024 to criminalise legitimate expressions and violate human rights of Nigerians, including activists, journalists, bloggers and social media users.
Recall that the court had in its judgment on March 25, 2022, ordered Nigerian authorities to stop using Section 24 of the Cybercrime Act 2015 to prosecute anyone on the grounds of insulting or stalking public officials online.
The court declared Section 24 as arbitrary, vague and repressive and ordered the authorities to repeal it in conformity with the country’s human rights obligations.
Although the Cybercrime (Amendment) Act 2024 has repealed Section 24, SERAP believes it has not addressed the arbitrary, vague and repressive nature of the provisions.
In the suit, No: ECW/CCJ/APP/03/2025, filed last week before the court, SERAP is challenging the legality and compatibility of the provisions of the Cybercrime Prohibition, Prevention, etc (Amendment) Act 2024 with the rights to freedom of expression and information.
According to SERAP, the provisions of the Cybercrimes (Amendment) Act 2024 have opened the door to criminalising legitimate expression and punishing activists, journalists, bloggers and social media users.
Also, according to the organisation, what constitutes ‘causing a breakdown of law and order’ in Section 24(1)(b) of the amended legislation is unclear and undefined, threatening to punish peaceful and legitimate expression and opening the provisions up to abuse.
SERAP also said rather than using the amended legislation to make cyberspace and its users safer, Nigerian authorities are routinely weaponising it to curtail Nigerians’ human rights and media freedom.
The body is arguing that the Cybercrime (Amendment) Act 2024, in addition to its arbitrary, vague and repressive Section 24 provisions, broadly defines ‘cyberstalking’ in Section 58 as ‘a course of conduct, directed at a specific person that would cause a reasonable person to feel fear. ‘
“The provisions of the Cybercrimes (Amendment) Act 2024 represent a harshly punitive attempt to address the problems relating to stalking and harassment and failed to provide sufficient safeguards against misuse, particularly for peaceful and legitimate exercise of human rights.
“The use of Section 24 of the Cybercrime (Amendment) Act 2024 to harass those who are deemed critical of the government directly threatens the staff, members and supporters of SERAP, particularly given the nature of the organisation’s advocacy for human rights,” SERAP argued.
In the suit filed on behalf of SERAP by its lawyers, Kolawole Oluwadare, Mrs Adelanke Aremo and Andrew Nwankwo, the organisation lamented that the amended legislation was abused to threaten and stifle people’s human rights and livelihoods.
SERAP wants an order of the court directing the defendant to immediately repeal and/or amend Section 24 of the Act in line with Nigeria’s obligations under Article 1 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights and other relevant human rights treaties. No date has been fixed for the hearing of the suit.
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