NCC urges Nigeria to collaborate with other countries on Internet crimes

The Director, New Media and Information Security of the Nigerian Communications Commission, Sylvanus Ehikioya, has said that Nigeria must collaborate with other countries to check internet crimes.

Mr. Ehikioya said on Friday in Lagos that cyber crime is not geographic specific and cuts across geographical boundaries.

“Since it cuts across boundaries, that means that there are different governments having jurisdiction in cyber governance,” he said. “This implies that collaborative efforts must be put in place because of the cross jurisdictional issues involved.”

The Director said even in the model cyber crime law being produced by the International Telecommunications Union, there is a section titled ‘International Collaboration Co-operations”.

“This means that countries must make provisions in their laws to collaborate with other countries,” he said.

Mr.  Ehikioya said measures were being taken to make appropriate frameworks and guidelines in Nigeria to facilitate collaborations with other countries against cyber crime saying the critical ones are the several bills pending at the National Assembly on cyber crime in different formats.

“The most recent is the harmonised Cyber-Security Bill of 2011 which was done under the auspices of the late Gen. Andrew Azazi (former National Security Adviser).

“It is our hope that the particular bill, which harmonises all other bills and incorporates all best practices, is the one that will be passed,” Mr. Ehikioya said.

The Director said various agencies in the sector were creating policies and guidelines to secure and protect their services to consumers.

He said that when the frameworks are completed, Nigerians who commit cybercrimes against citizens in other countries like the U.S. could be extradited to America to face trial.

He said without collaboration, it would be difficult to fight a crime which had no geographic boundary like cyber crime. The commission, which regulates telecommunications in Nigeria, interacts with other world bodies like the ITU, FCC in the USA and Malaysian Regulatory Authority.

He said Nigeria’s membership of organisations like the General Assembly Council of the Internet governance forum would ensure application of best practices in the sector for Nigerians.

NAN