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Nigerian president Goodluck Jonathan.
(image credit: UK Cabinet Office) |
Nigeria’s
Federal Government has brought into action a draft bill that will allow
the government to intercept and record electronic communications, and
acquire internet usage data from internet service providers and mobile
networks.
While the bill still needs to be passed into law, it will give the
authorities the power to intercept personal email, text messages,
instant messages, voice mails and multimedia messages – which they say
will help with criminal investigations.
Under a subheading titled ‘Interception of electronic
communications,’ section 22 of the bill says, “Where there are
reasonable grounds to suspect that the content of any electronic
communication is reasonably required for the purposes of a criminal
investigation or proceedings, a judge may on the basis of information on
oath:
