Appeal Court President seeks blockage of Data leakages to tackle Cybercrime

Justice Monica Dongban-Mensem, president, Court of Appeal, has advocated for effective blockage of leakage in the data collection system in the country to be able to effectively tackle the menace of cybercrime

Dongban-Mensem made this position known at a 2-day “Awareness and Sensitisation Workshop for Judiciary and National Assembly on the implementation of Nigeria’s National Cyber Security Policy and Strategy (NCPS) 2021 on Wednesday, in Abuja.

Dongban-Mensem, who was represented by Justice Stephen Adah, said the issue of national security was everyone’s business, noting that there was need for collective fight against cybercrimes, terrorism and money laundering.

She also advocated that crime especially cybercrime must be aggressively and collaboratively tackled by ensuring total and complete data collection of all persons in the country.

She explained that this data is not only essential but it is indispensable to fight against cybercrimes, adding that there is a need to  ensure that all leakages in our data gathering are blocked for effective management of our affairs.

According to her, this requires considerable cooperation and effective sharing of information between all security agencies creating an identity and reliable insurance system as no one should be excluded at all.

She said “All children must be registered and accounted for and parents must be held responsible for the act of their children.

“This will enable us to have a veritable identification system that also allows one to easily identify perpetrators of such heinous crimes through their kit and kin with all the information and the digital footprints.

“Traditional rulers also must be part of these schemes which are aimed at capturing who is in their domains so as easily fish out the perpetrators of cybercrime and indeed all forms of crime.

“It is believed that every society or community know the criminals,” the Appeal Court President said.

Dongban-Mensem pointed out that Nigeria urgently required a comprehensive and effective insurance policy that would underwrite loss occurring from cybercrimes.

She noted that such policy would engage insurance companies more productively in the war against cybercrime.

She tasked security agencies to ensure that they had sufficient evidence, assuring that right conviction and appropriate sentence would be meted out for such convicted defendants.

She added that this requires close collaboration between all stakeholders which this workshop aims to facilitate.

John Tsoho, chief Judge of the Federal High Court, represented by Justice Inyang Ekwo, said the menace of cybercrime in Nigeria required concerted effort towards addressing it.

Tsoho condemned the involvement of youths in cyber crimes adding that the bulk of the perpetrator was within the same age bracket.

Chief Judge of the Federal High Court lauded the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) for its commitment to the implementation of the NCPS 2021 towards the protection of the nation’s cyberspace from cybercriminals.

Justice Benedict Kanyip, president, National Industrial Court, on his part, said that terrorist groups were affiliated through the use of cyberspace, noting that cyber warfare were behind today’s asymmetric conflicts.

Kanyip highlighted that the emergence of technology had led to shifts in security landscape as well as given rise to surprise security cultures.

He, therefore, called for collective actions against cybercrimes, adding that cybersecurity was not an issue for government alone.

He revealed that the increasing rate of cybercrime shows no sign of abating principally because the software industry has been slow to design comprehensive measures to protect against consumer computer viruses.