CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the Study
Cyber-crimes are reasonably a new sensation however same has occupied the cynosure of worldwide interest due to the fact that people around the world, regardless of whether private or public, are susceptible to it, the stated susceptibility is practically inevitable for the fact that the world is in an information age (Encyclopedia of Library and Information Science, 1977), precisely; cyber-crimes arose with the introduction of the Internet, thus giving a conducive clime for criminal activities engendered by cyber criminals.
Cyber-crime is an umbrella term used to explain two unique, however closely associated criminal activities: cyber dependent and cyber-enabled criminal offenses (McGuire and Dowling, 2013), the former are offences that can only be committed by using a computer system, computer networks, or other form of ICT. These acts consist of the spread of viruses and other malicious software program, and distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks. Cyber-dependent crimes are mainly acts aimed at computers or network resources, although there might be secondary results from the attacks, such as fraud and the latter, cyber-enabled crimes, are conventional criminal activities that are raised in their scale or reach by using computer systems, computer networks or other ICT; this includes however not restricted to fraud (consisting of mass-marketing frauds, phishing emails and other scams; online banking and e-commerce frauds); theft (consisting of theft of personal information and identification-related data); and sexual offending against children (including grooming, and the property, creation and/or distribution of sexual images).
Nigeria with a population of over 200 million and ranking first in the number of internet users within Africa with 91 million active users. The nation is multi-ethnic and culturally diverse and represents 47 percent of West Africa's population (Internet World Stats, 2017; World Bank, 2017). Policing crime in Nigeria has been the sole obligation of the Nigerian police for years (Nigerian Police Force, 2017), nevertheless, maintaining of public security is just one of the greatest challenges dealing with the nation due to an inefficient police force that has made the Nigerian government handicapped to function maximally (Owen, 2014; Nwachukwu, 2012). This issue is further worsened with the coming of the internet and mobile phones which has made the internet more accessible and affordable even to criminals (Clough, 2010).
Due to the integration of digital technology and accessibility of the internet (Saulawa and Abubakar, 2014), cybercrime has come to be a popular crime in Nigeria as a result of poor policing, and absence of enforcement of appropriate legislations and policies in the nation (Adesina, 2017; Nkanga, 2011). Certainly, there is a rise of cybercrime in Nigeria. The nation is placed third in global internet crime after the United States of America and United Kingdom while 7.5 percent of the world's hackers are stated to be Nigerians (This day, 2016). Committed mainly by the young, commonly called Yahoo boys, a precursor of the well-known 419 email scammers, the fraudsters are seriously capitalizing on the increase in online transactions, electronic shopping, e-commerce and the digital messaging systems to engage in heinous crime.
The unfavorable socio-economic effect of cybercrime in Nigeria, drove the government to take radical steps such as creating another agency, enacting cybercrime laws, and partnering with stakeholders in an attempt to significantly minimize the activities of cyber criminals (Adesina, 2017; Adomi and Igun 2008). Therefore, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) was developed with an act of parliament called the EFCC Act (2004) and Advance Fee Fraud and various other Fraud Related Offences (AFF) Act (2006) in order to explore financial crimes such as cybercrime (Chawki, et al, 2015; Obuah, 2010). Nevertheless, throughout the years, the inadequacies of the laws and policies in combating cybercrime have been limited (Chawki et al., 2015), for that reason, the Cybercrime Prohibition, Prevention Act (2015) was signed into law in an attempt to sanitise the Nigerian cyberspace (Paul, 2015).
1.2 Statement of the Problem
Undeniably, the policing of crime using the conventional Nigerian police has lots of restrictions (Owen, 2014), and the integrity of the Nigerian police force has been eroded by its failure to carry out its constitutional obligations to the society (Nwachukwu, 2012). As a result of that, cybercrime has had an unfavorable effect to the economy and reputation of the nation as a haven of criminals. Ribadu (2007) suggested that, cybercrime transaction well worth £300 million, €200 million, and $500 million were stopped between 2003 and 2007, and just lately it cost Nigerian consumers roughly $13.5 billion dollars in 2012 (Sesan, G., Soremi, B., Oluwafemi, B.; 2013). The issue of cybercrime in Nigeria is more intensified by the increased usage of the internet for illegal activities (UNODC, 2013) and the absence of cyber individual understanding, that makes web individuals susceptible to be made use of by bad guys on-line (Kortjan and Solms, 2014). Although, the Nigerian government have designed appropriate legal and institutional structures in securing the Nigerian cyberspace (Adomi and Igun, 2008), policing the cyberspace would certainly require governments and lawful systems to constantly adapt to new innovations and techniques in dealing with cybercrime (Grabosky, 2001). Presently, there is a need for the Nigerian government to work together in enhancing the lawful structures for cybersecurity, and enforcing existing laws in an effort to reduce the effect of cybercrime in the society (Olusola, et al, 2012).
1.3 Objectives of the Study
The primary objective of this study is to the challenges of prosecuting cybercrime offenses in Nigeria by using Calabar Municipal Local Government Area as a case study. The specific objectives include:
i) To evaluate the legal and institutional frameworks relevant for the prosecution of Cybercrimes in Nigeria
ii) To determine the current laws used in investigating cybercriminals in Nigeria through review of relevant laws and policies.
iii) To explore the challenges and limitations in investigating cybercrime in Nigeria through review of relevant literature
iv) To find out the prospects of prosecuting cybercrimes perpetrators in Nigeria.
1.4 Research Questions
The research questions include the following:
i) Are there any legal and institutional frameworks relevant for the prosecution of Cybercrimes in Nigeria?
ii) What are the current laws used in investigating cybercriminals in Nigeria through review of relevant laws and policies?
iii) What are the challenges and limitations in investigating cybercrime in Nigeria through review of relevant literature?
iv) What are the prospects of prosecuting cybercrimes perpetrators in Nigeria?
1.5 Significance of the Study
This work would be an eye opener for future and further research. As issues raised in this work portends a huge prospect for the challenges of cybercrime prosecution in Nigeria. Foremost, the key findings in this research are instrumental and are of significance. The researcher has been able to explain the challenges and prospect of prosecuting cybercrimes in Nigeria. The researcher went further to examine the Nature, Jurisdiction, Legal and Institutional Framework relevant for the prosecution of Cybercrimes in Nigeria. The research findings of this study are immense thereby making the study significant. One of such findings is that the challenges of prosecuting cybercrimes in Nigeria are as a result of related factors such as corruption. It is in light of the above key finding that; this research work significantly addresses the problem of prosecuting cybercrimes in Nigeria as the study's recommendations and contributions to knowledge would guide the federal government of Nigeria, law makers, the judiciary, intelligence and security agencies, and the international community on how to tackle the challenges of prosecuting cybercrimes in Nigeria and its prospect. It would also serve as an academic guide for scholars and students as it would help to orient the academic community of scholars on cybercrime in Nigeria.
1.6 Scope of the Study
This study focuses mainly on the challenges of prosecuting cybercrime offenses in Calabar Municipal Local Government Area from 2010 to 2022, because this period witnessed a rise in the use of the internet and this led to high level of Cybercrimes in Calabar Municipal Local Government Area and in Nigeria as a whole as well as the globe. The above reason is why the researcher restricted the scope of the study to the period of 2010 to 2022.
1.7 Limitations of the Study
The author in the conduct of this research work encountered some limitation in relation to this study. A major constraint the author experienced was financial constraint. There were no enough funds to extensively carryout an in-dept interview on the legal practitioners, law enforcement agents and the public, so the researcher made do of the limited funds and relied on already published materials of other authors.
1.8 Definition of Terms
These terms were used throughout the research study and a detailed definition is provided below:
Crime: is an action or omission which constitutes an offence and is punishable by law.
Cyber: relates to or the characteristic of the culture of computers, information technology, and virtual reality.
Cybercrime: refers to computer related crime which is considered as any illegal, unethical or unauthorized behaviour relating to the automatic processing and the transmission of data.
Cyber security: refers to the practice of defending computers, servers, mobile devices, electronic systems, networks, and data from malicious attacks.
Prosecution: is the act of carrying on a legal action against a person accused of a crime in a court.
