Date: 2017-03-02

Gov. Abdulfatah Ahmed of Kwara on Wednesday called for the prosecution of cyber crimes offenders in Nigeria in line with the Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention, etc) Act, 2015

Ahmed, represented by his Special Assistant on Security Matter, Alhaji Amusa Bello, made the call in Ilorin at a two-day workshop tagged: "Fighting Cybercrimes and Insecurity: Developing Organisational Innovative".

It was organised by an NGO, Wise World Firm (WWF), in partnership with the international space experts.

The Act provides an effective, unified and comprehensive legal, regulatory and institutional framework for the prohibition, prevention, detection, prosecution and punishment of cybercrimes in Nigeria.

It also ensures the protection of critical national information infrastructure and promotes cyber-security and the protection of computer systems and networks, electronic communications, data and computer programs, intellectual property and privacy rights.

Ahmed urged the Federal Government to strengthen the capacities of the law enforcement agencies by training them on relevant digital, forensic and evidence tools to enable them to prosecute cyber crimes offenders.

The governor also decried the ranking of Nigeria as the third in the global internet crimes after U.S and UK and the rating that 7.5 percent of the world's hackers were Nigerians.

"Based on this, it has become imperative for us to take cyber security more seriously and find ways to discourage cybercrimes in Nigeria. "In this regard, while Cybercrimes Act is truly noteworthy, enforcement remains a problem," Ahmed said. The governor said that the hackers were more ready than before to compromise data because of the price it commands at the unofficial market.

"It is predicted that the global cost of cyber crimes will reach two trillion dollars by 2019, a threefold increase from the 2015 estimate.

"Unfortunately, Nigeria has often been linked with these activities, email scams and other nefarious online activities by some individuals that have, in no small way, contributed to marring the image of the country," he said.

According to Ahmed, cybercrime has been identified as one of the fastest growing transnational organised crimes that have affected millions of individuals globally.

"These cyber intrusions are becoming common and sophisticated as governments and companies are targets for sensitive data and citizens by fraudsters and identity thieves," Ahmed said.

The governor said that the state government had put in place a robust Information Technology policy that linked the ministries and departments together to ensure the integrity of information.

!Furthermore, through e-governance, the ministries have been able to adopt information and communication technology to ensure efficiency, accountability and transparency among the government agencies,! he said.

Ahmed said that there was a need for collaboration among the countries of the world in the areas of expertise to efficiently address the issue of cyber crimes.

He urged the Federal Government to put in place a national public campaign to raise awareness on cyber security and the practice of safe online habit.

In her remarks, the Managing Director of Wise World Firm, Mrs Christie Dagogo-George, expressed worry that the e-infrastructural integrity of Nigeria was in a critical state.

"Statistics has shown that between 2006 and 2013, Nigerian Government and organisations have incurred losses to cyber crimes fraudsters to the tune of 129 billion dollars.

Dagogo-George said that ICT growth and contribution to the nation economy stood at 11.93 per cent.