A civil society, Accountability Lab Nigeria has said there is a need for the country to evolve a law to protect digital rights. The organisation called on the Federal Government to work with the National Assembly to ensure the passage of the Digital Rights and Freedom Bill. It argued that a law that protects digital rights was pertinent to the nation’s progress.

This is even as the organisation also asked the two arms of government to gazette the Nigerian Data Protection Regulation (NDPR) to make it enforceable and part of the Nigerian law.

Communication Manager, Accountability Lab Nigeria, Murkthar Suleiman, stated this in Abuja during the training for Security Officers from the Department of State Services (DSS), the Nigeria Police, National Intelligence Agency (NIA), National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), and the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) on digital rights.

Suleiman said the law will ensure that Nigeria becomes a respectable 21st Century digitised economy and a society governed by the rule of law where the citizens are not harassed by law enforcement agencies.

Originally published in The Nation

Kibo Ngowi