Stakeholders advocate stringent enforcement to curb cyber crimes for national development 

Stakeholders in technology related sector in Nigeria have advocated for a more stringent enforcement measure to be put in place to tackle the growing incidents of cyber crime, if the country as the largest economy in Africa by GDP, hope to grow her economy.

Industry watchers observe that as technology develops, cyber crimes also develop, adding that only the will power to adopt a robust enforcement can stem this tide.

Oladele Agboola, general counsel, Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System plc, while speaking at the Cybercrime Prohibition and Prevention Act 2015 Stakeholders Symposium in Lagos, Wednesday, said there was increasing interest of cyber criminals in new platforms, including cloud, mobile and social networking.

The reason is the capability of these infrastructure to reach a wide audience, and the lack of awareness in cyber threats.

Agboola, in a presentation titled ‘Considerations for Electronic Payments Fraud, said Nigeria cannot develop as a nation until concerned regulatory agencies act urgently to execute an effective, unified and comprehensive legal, regulatory and institutional framework for the prohibition, prevention, detection, prosecution and punishment of cyber crimes.

According to him, “the inter-continental nature of cyber crime has rendered many time-honoured methods of policing both domestically and in cross-border situations ineffective even in advanced nations, while the digital divide among countries regrettably continues to provide safe havens for cyber criminals.

“In response to the threat of cyber crime, there is an urgent need to reform methods of mutual legal assistance among countries and to develop trans-national policing capability.”

Ade Ipaye, former attorney general of Lagos State, in his presentation ‘Institutional Framework for Implementation and Enforcement,’ called for public awareness and capacity building programmes for industry practitioners to strengthen anti-cyber crime strategies.

On his part, Zubairu Muazu, deputy commissioner of police, the Nigeria Police Airport Command, said part of the challenge slowing the process of proper enforcement was the issue of inadequate training resulting in lack of knowledge-based policing.

Muazu also blamed inadequate cooperation/support from stakeholder agencies, slow nature of Criminal Justice Administration Process for the seeming clog in the wheel of progress in tackling cyber crimes in Nigeria.