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Sowore joins 'Egbetokun Must Go' protesters at Abuja court [Credit: Facebook| Omoyele Sowore]
Human rights lawyer and Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Femi Falana, has said the suit brought against the former presidential candidate of the African Action Congress, Omoyele Sowore, by the Inspector General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, “is going nowhere.”
Falana said this on Thursday while responding to a question from our correspondent at a workshop on Digital Campaigns and Online Security organised by Amnesty International, Nigeria, at Dover Hotels in Ikeja, Lagos.
When asked for his view on the legal implications of the Cybercrime Act 2015, under which some journalists and activists, including Sowore, are being tried, Falana said he was ready to defend anyone wrongly charged with cybercrime.
He said, “Today, you cannot charge anybody or arrest anybody for defaming a ‘big man’ under the Cybercrime Act. If it happens anywhere, please let us know so that the authorities can be taken up.
“The Sowore versus IGP case, you already know that those cases will go nowhere, we say they are as dead as ‘dodo.'”
The PUNCH reports that Egbetokun had dragged Sowore to a Federal High Court in Abuja in January for calling him an “illegal IGP” on his verified X account.
The Nigeria Police Force argued that the “offence” contradicted Section 24 of the Cybercrime Act of 2015.
Falana, who delved into the history of the Act, said, “The Cybercrime Act of 2015 criminalised even annoyance, that if you annoy a big man, you have committed an offence, (it criminalised) defamation, insult, that if you insult a big man, you have committed an offence.
“We challenged the law, that Section 24 based on the ECOWAS judgment mandating Nigeria to amend the law to respect the rights of Nigerians to express themselves.
“So in February 2024, the National Assembly amended the law and removed insult, annoyance, defamation, and the rest of them. What we now have under Section 24 is any message sent through the computer that contains pornographic materials or false information that is meant to cause a breakdown of law and order.”
He added, “If I write against somebody, it’s not pornographic, it won’t lead to the breakdown of law and order, I’ve only defamed you, so you go to court, you sue for libel.”
In a related development, the Take It Back Movement, while addressing a press conference at the venue, sought the repeal of the Cybercrime Act.
The human rights group’s National Coordinator, Juwon Sanyaolu, said the Act was targeted at journalists, activists, and the opposition.
“Looking at the chain of events, the Cybercrime Act has not been an Act about combating cybercrime; it is a weapon of mass suppression, a digital shackling, designed to silence Nigerians who dare to challenge the corrupt and illegitimate powers that be, including opposition voices, journalists, and young people freely expressing their opinions on TikTok, and X,” Sanyaolu said.
He noted that Sowore had been “repeatedly hunted by the police using the Act,” citing other persons, including human rights lawyer Dele Farotimi, Olamide Thomas, Olumide Ogunsanwo, and investigative journalist Fisayo Soyombo, as “victims of this repressive act.”
“We demand the immediate and unconditional repeal of the Cybercrime Act. This oppressive law has no place in a free and just society.
“We demand an immediate end to the persecution of activists, journalists, and citizens under the guise of enforcing the Cybercrime Act,” he added.
