The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has filed a lawsuit against President Bola Tinubu’s government and Nigeria’s 36 state governors at the ECOWAS Court over the “repressive use of the Cybercrimes (Amendment) Act 2024.”
SERAP argues that the law criminalizes legitimate expression and violates the human rights of Nigerians, including activists, journalists, bloggers, and social media users.
In the lawsuit, filed last week at the ECOWAS Community Court of Justice in Abuja, SERAP is challenging the legality of the Cybercrimes (Amendment) Act 2024. The organization contends that the law is incompatible with the rights to freedom of expression and information.
“The provisions of the Cybercrimes (Amendment) Act 2024 have opened the door to criminalizing legitimate expression and punishing activists, journalists, bloggers and social media users,” SERAP stated in the suit.
SERAP also expressed concern about the vague and undefined terms in the law, particularly the phrase “causing a breakdown of law and order” in section 24(1)(b). “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,” the organization stated.
The organization also criticized the broad definitions within the law, such as the one for ‘cyberstalking,’ which is defined in section 58 as “a course of conduct, directed at a specific person that would cause a reasonable person to feel fear.”
SERAP argued that the provisions of the law represent a harshly punitive attempt to address stalking and harassment, while failing to offer adequate safeguards against misuse, especially in the case of peaceful human rights advocacy.
“The provisions of the Cybercrimes (Amendment) Act 2024 represent a harshly punitive attempt to address the problems relating to stalking and harassment and fails to provide sufficient safeguards against misuse, particularly for peaceful and legitimate exercise of human rights,” SERAP argued.
“The amended legislation is abused to threaten and stifle people’s human rights and livelihoods,” the suit read. Furthermore, SERAP noted that rather than ensuring safer cyberspace, Nigerian authorities have been weaponizing the law to curb Nigerians’ human rights and media freedom.
“Rather than using the amended legislation to make cyberspace and its users safer, Nigerian authorities are routinely weaponizing it to curb Nigerians’ human rights and media freedom,” SERAP said.
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The case references a 2022 ECOWAS Court ruling that declared section 24 of the Cybercrime Act 2015 “arbitrary, vague, and repressive,” and in violation of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights. Despite the repeal of section 24 in the 2024 amendment, SERAP asserts that the new provisions remain problematic.
“The provisions of the Cybercrimes (Amendment) Act 2024 still criminalize ‘cyberstalking’. The provisions remain vague, arbitrary, and frequently misused by Nigerian authorities to crackdown on human rights,” SERAP explained.
The lawsuit also highlighted how the law has been used to harass individuals, particularly journalists and activists. “For example, the police filed ‘cybercrime charges’ against activist Dele Farotimi under the arbitrary, vague and repressive provisions of the Cybercrimes (Amendment) Act 2024,” SERAP pointed out, citing specific cases where individuals were charged or arrested for exercising their rights.
“Journalist Agba Jalingo of the Cross River Watch Newspaper was charged with ‘cyberstalking’ over a report that a relative of a former governor of Cross River State had engaged someone to sit for law exams on her behalf,” SERAP also noted.
SERAP further pointed to other instances where Nigerians were targeted under the new law, such as Chioma Okoli, who was arrested for a Facebook comment, and Funke Adeoye, who was reportedly summoned by the police for an alleged case of cyberbullying.
“Chioma Okoli was arrested following her comment on Facebook complaining about the sugar content of Nagiko tomato mix. Funke Adeoye was also reportedly summoned by the police for alleged cyberbullying due to a statement she shared on her X account,” the suit stated.
The suit also referenced other reports of people being unfairly charged, including bloggers and a “famous singer” accused of cyberstalking. “The Nigeria police also reportedly re-arraigned four bloggers on fresh charges of alleged cyberstalking. The police also arrested ‘a famous singer’ for alleged cyberstalking and harassing Benin Crown Prince,” SERAP pointed out.
SERAP emphasized that the provisions of the amended legislation are inconsistent with international human rights law, which requires any regulation of freedom of expression to be necessary for a legitimate purpose and strictly proportionate to that end.
“The provisions of the amended legislation are inconsistent with international human rights law, which requires any regulation of freedom of expression to be necessary for a legitimate purpose and to be strictly proportionate to that end,” the organization said.
In light of these issues, SERAP is asking the ECOWAS Court of Justice for several reliefs. These include a declaration that section 24 of the Cybercrime (Prohibition, Prevention, etc.) (Amendment) Act 2024 is unlawful and incompatible with international human rights law.
“A DECLARATION that the provisions of section 24 of the Cybercrime (Prohibition Prevention, ETC) (Amendment) Act 2024 are unlawful, inconsistent and incompatible with Article 9 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights and Article 19 of International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights,” SERAP’s legal team stated.
Additionally, SERAP seeks an order compelling the Nigerian government to repeal or amend section 24 in line with Nigeria’s human rights obligations.
“A DECLARATION that the actions of the Defendant and its law enforcement agencies in arbitrarily applying and enforcing section 24 of the Cybercrime (Prohibition, Prevention, ETC) (Amendment) Act 2024 to harass, intimidate, arrest, detain, unfairly prosecute and imprison journalists, bloggers, social media users, and other Nigerians threaten and/or violate the rights to freedom of expression, information, opinion, privacy and media freedom, guaranteed under the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights,” the suit reads.
The lawsuit also seeks an order for the Nigerian government to amend or repeal the provisions of section 24 in line with the country’s international human rights obligations.
“AN ORDER directing the Defendant to immediately repeal and/or amend section 24 of the Cybercrime (Prohibition, Prevention, ETC) (Amendment) Act 2024 in line with Nigeria’s obligations under Article 1 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights and other relevant human rights treaties,” SERAP’s legal team concluded.
The hearing date for the case has not yet been scheduled
