The Federal Executive Council on Wednesday approved the content of the Cybercrime Bill, 2013 and its transmission to the National Assembly for enactment into law.
Minister of Information, Labaran Maku, disclosed this after the Council meeting presided over by President Goodluck Jonathan at the State House.
Maku said the content of the Bill was presented to the Council by the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr Mohammed Adoke (SAN).
He defined Cybercrimes as species of cross-border crimes perpetrated in time and space from any geographical sport in the world.
“The core objective of the Cybercrime Bill, 2013 is to provide an effective, unified and comprehensive legal, regulatory and institutional framework for the prohibition, prevention, detection, prosecution and punishment of cybercrimes in Nigeria.
“When passed into law, it would promote cyber security and ensure the protection of critical national information infrastructure,’’ he said..
Maku said there was the need for cooperation and international coalition to combat cybercrimes and that a lot was expected of Nigeria as a noteworthy regional power in Africa by the International community.
He said the international community expected Nigeria to acquaint herself commendably by joining forces with other members of the comity of nations in the fight against cybercrimes and in the promotion of cyber security.
“The Bill is in conformity with existing Nigerian laws, the Budapest Convention on Cybercrime and reflects Nigeria’s obligations under the soon-to-be finalised AU Convention on the subject matter.
“Council approved the Bill for an Act to provide for the prohibition, prevention, detection, response and prosecution of cybercrimes and other related matters, 2013 for onward transmission to the National Assembly for passage into law,’’ he said.
Maku noted that besides ensuring safety in the nation’s cyber space it will also bring down cyber crime for which Nigeria has suffered a lot of odium internationally over the years through 419 crimes committed over the internet.