Sola Popoola
As debate rages over the application of the Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention, etc) Act, 2015 (as amended in 2024), legal icon and Visiting Professor of Legal Practice at the Federal University Oye-Ekiti,(FUOYE) Chief Wole Olanipekun, CFR, SAN, has proposed strong institutional safeguards to prevent the law from becoming “sedition in digital clothing.”
Delivering his distinguished lecture on Thursday, October 8, 2026, titled “The Jurisprudence of Criminal Defamation and Cyberstalking Under Nigerian Law,” Olanipekun said while Nigeria needs cybercrime regulation, its legitimacy depends entirely on restraint.
The Senior Advocate listed five non-negotiable safeguards for enforcement agencies, prosecutors and courts:
Cybercrime investigations involving speech should ordinarily require demonstrable evidence of serious harm, threat, harassment, knowingly false communication or public-order danger.
Arrest should not become the first instinct where invitation, notice, preservation of evidence or civil process may suffice.
Insulate prosecutorial discretion:* Prosecutorial power must be exercised independently and insulated from personal, political or institutional vendetta.
Strict proof of mental element:* Courts must insist on strict proof of knowledge, intention and purpose, especially where falsity is alleged under Section 24.
Robust protection for public interest:* Public-interest journalism, academic criticism, whistle-blowing and legitimate democratic commentary must receive robust protection.
“These safeguards are not obstacles to justice; they are conditions of justice,” Olanipekun said. “They ensure that the law remains an instrument of protection rather than intimidation. A carefully restrained law is more defensible than a broadly weaponized one.”
He anchored the safeguards on constitutional proportionality — that any restriction on Section 39 freedom of expression must pursue a legitimate aim, be rationally connected to that aim, impair the right no more than reasonably necessary, and maintain fair balance.
Closing the lecture, the former NBA President left the audience with six final takeaways which he described as the foundation for a Nigerian jurisprudence of digital responsibility:
First ,the foremost Lawyer said expression is indispensable, but not a license to destroy, and that Freedom remains a pillar of democracy, but it does not include a right to fabricate and ruin reputation.
He explained that Digital technology magnifies harm: Unlike print, online falsehood travels with speed, anonymity, permanence, virality and algorithmic amplification, and often remains searchable forever.
The Senior Advocate posited that criminalization must be disciplined:Prosecution is defensible only where the law is clear, necessary, proportionate, fairly enforced and restrained.
He also argued that Nigerian jurisprudence must be homegrown: It must be rooted in constitutional liberty and the African Charter’s communitarian conception of dignity, which ties liberty to responsibility.
Technology ,according to Olanipekun must remain servant of justice: Courts, police and lawyers must develop competence in digital forensics, metadata analysis and authentication to confront AI deepfakes, synthetic voices and manipulated videos where “seeing is no longer believing.”
Chief Olanipekun therefore submitted that the Cybercrimes Act is for all Nigerians: The Act uses the phrase “any person” and must be applied evenly — for the victim and for the critic, for the citizen and for the officer, for the newspaper and for the blogger — with the same discipline of proof, same insistence on fair hearing, and same refusal to let power decide who is protected.
“My honest view is that Sections 33, 34, 35, 37 and 42 rights to life, dignity, liberty, private life and freedom from discrimination would be meaningless if citizens are not equally protected from cyberstalking,” he said.
“The situation has assumed dangerous and pandemic dimensions. It is not just the powerful oppressing the powerless. Unidentified individuals harass, malign, vilify and disparage fellow citizens with reckless abandon from their closets at midnight.”
He ended with a biblical injunction that also mirrors Lord Atkin’s neighbour principle in Donoghue v Stevenson: “Do unto others what you want done to you.”
“Each of us, when we publish, stands in the neighbourhood of others. The law will not do all of the work of restraint; conscience must do the rest.”
In his opening remarks, FUOYE Vice Chancellor , Prof. Joshua Ogunwole , represented by the Deputy VC Prof Babatunde Afolabi described the topic of the public lecture as academically stimulating and socially relevant .
He described Chief Olanipekun as a great philanthropist ,mentor of mentors, legal giant ,and an authority in jurisprudence.
The VC said Chief Olanipekun’s acceptance to deliver the public in spite of his tight schedule was a testament to his passion for legal scholarship and youth development .
Also present at the event was as special guest of honour was the the retired High Court Judge of Kogi State ,Professor Alana Ajileye