By Hon. Justice Alaba Omolaye-Ajileye, [Rtd.], PhD, FICMC
![](https://thenigerialawyer.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/2026-IDRI-Masterclass.png")
FORMER HIGH COURT JUDGE VISITING PROFESSOR, NATIONAL OPEN UNIVERSITY
[Paper delivered at the Chief Wole Olanipekun, SAN, OFR, CFR Lecture Series to Law Students of the Federal University Oye-Ekiti, Ekiti State, on Thursday, 8th September 2026]
Protocol
Appreciation
I express my profound gratitude to Chief ‘Wole Olanipekun, SAN, OFR, CFR, Distinguished Visiting Professor of Law Practice, at the Federal University Oye-Ekiti, for inviting me to participate in this Distinguished Lecture Series. I must also acknowledge my enduring indebtedness to him for all that God has used him to accomplish in my life. He nurtured me from legal infancy to professional maturity, guiding me with wisdom, patience, kindness, and generousity. When my life story is told, his invaluable contributions will hold a prominent place, indelibly inscribed in gold.
I also express my sincere gratitude to the Vice-Chancellor of the Federal University Oye-Ekiti, Professor Joshua Olalekan Ogunwole, for graciously welcoming me to participate in this programme. I deeply appreciate the opportunity to contribute to this distinguished academic gathering.
Preamble
Preamble: A journey from Ignorance to Knowledge
There is a story of my life in my foray into the arena of electronic evidence that I desire to share whenever I am in the gathering of young people. The personal story is a remarkable journey in the field of electronic evidence—one that began in near-total ignorance and gradually progressed to knowledge, competence, expertise, and relevance.
What makes the story significant is not merely where the journey ended, but how it began. There was no special advantage, no ready-made expertise, and no shortcut to success. What existed was a vision, a willingness to learn, an unyielding determination to improve, and the resilience to continue in the face of challenges. Through deliberate self-development, continuous learning, commitment, and hard work, an unfamiliar field gradually became an area of strength and professional relevance.
This story is shared not simply as a personal achievement, but as a challenge to you, the young students sitting here today. Your present position does not determine your final destination. What you do not know today can become what you are known for tomorrow. The subject that appears difficult today may become the very field in which you eventually distinguish yourself.
You may begin from a point of emptiness, but you do not have to remain there. Through vision, discipline, determination, resilience, and persistent hard work, you can move from emptiness to substance, from ignorance to knowledge, from obscurity to relevance, and from being a learner today to becoming an authority tomorrow.
That is the challenge of this story: never allow where you are today to place a limit on where you can be tomorrow. I am sure you want to hear the story.
- Introduction
Modern life should now be understood as taking place across three interconnected realms: the physical, the spiritual, and the virtual.
The physical realm is the natural and material world in which we live and interact. It includes the environment around us, our bodies, institutions, homes, workplaces, and communities. Human conduct in this realm is generally visible and tangible. Traditional law developed primarily to regulate relationships, rights, duties and offences occurring within this physical space.
The spiritual realm, by contrast, concerns the non-material dimension of human existence. It relates to faith, conscience, belief and humanity’s understanding of realities beyond the physical world. For many societies and individuals, the spiritual realm has always played an important role in shaping morality, values and human behaviour.
The virtual realm is comparatively new. Unlike the physical and spiritual realms, it is largely a product of human ingenuity. It emerged from the invention of the computer and expanded dramatically through the development of the internet, smartphones, social media, artificial intelligence and other information technologies. The virtual realm, often described as cyberspace, enables people to communicate and interact without being physically present in the same location. A person in Nigeria can communicate instantly with another person thousands of kilometres away, conduct business, attend meetings, publish information or participate in social activities through a digital device.
Although the virtual realm is created by technology, the consequences of activities carried out within it are very real. Fraudulent transactions may cause financial loss, and private information may be unlawfully exposed to millions of people. In this sense, cyberspace does not exist independently of human society; it extends human activities into a technologically created environment.
- Features and Challenges of Virtual World (Cyberspace)
One major feature of the virtual world, relevant to our discourse here, is that it is a lawless arena. Law enforcement agents cannot effectively police cyberspace. It is borderless. It is also highly decentralized, which allows all kinds of criminals to operate with reckless abandon across jurisdictions. It is possible to operate in the virtual world through anonymous or pseudonymous identities. This makes the detection, investigation, and prosecution of online criminal conduct more complex than in the physical world.
The absence of a single law-enforcement authority with universal control over cyberspace further creates significant enforcement challenges. Threatening or intimidating communications may originate in one jurisdiction, pass through platforms or servers in another, and affect victims elsewhere. These features make cyberspace attractive to offenders and underscore the need for strong cybercrime laws, digital forensic capacity, and effective international cooperation.
The emergence of this virtual realm has therefore created new challenges for law and society. Conduct that was once committed mainly in the physical world can now be carried out through computers and digital networks. Defamation may become online defamation, intimidation may take the form of cyberstalking or electronic threats, or cyberbullying. Fraud may become cyber fraud, and harassment may be carried out continuously through social media platforms. The law must consequently adapt to ensure that technological innovation does not create a space in which harmful conduct escapes regulation.
- Traditional Criminal Intimidation Under the Penal Code
Under the Penal Code of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), criminal intimidation essentially involves threatening another person with injury to his person, reputation, or property, with the intention of causing alarm or compelling the person to do something he is not legally bound to do, or preventing him from doing something he is legally entitled to do. (Section 96 of the FCT Penal Code refers) In Chidozie v. C.O.P (2018) LPELR-43602(SC) (Pp. 11-12 paras. F), the Supreme Court identified the essential elements as a threat, threatened injury, and an intention to cause alarm or compel/ restrain conduct.
Criminal intimidation becomes aggravated under section 397(b) when it includes threats to cause death or grievous hurt, destroy property by fire, cause an offence punishable with death or imprisonment extending to seven years, or impute unchastity to a woman. Thus, a threat to kill someone or burn their house attracts the more severe punishment, provided the elements of criminal intimidation are established. It is seven years’ imprisonment or a fine or both.
- Cyberstalking, the Cybercrime Equivalent to Criminal Intimidation
We now have criminal intimidation in the virtual World. Words may be posted online to damage reputation. Threats transmitted electronically may create genuine fear. In Nigerian law, the closest cybercrime equivalent of criminal intimidation is generally cyberstalking involving threats or harassment under section 24(2) of the Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention, etc.) Act 2015, as amended in 2024.
Originally, section 24(1)(a) criminalised knowingly or intentionally sending electronic messages that were grossly offensive, pornographic, indecent, obscene or menacing. Paragraph (b) covered knowingly false messages sent for purposes including annoyance, inconvenience, insult, criminal intimidation, hatred and needless anxiety.
The 2024 amendment narrowed section 24(1), while section 24(2) remained unchanged. The amendment removed those descriptions and substituted two narrower categories:
- Section 24(1)(a): pornographic messages.
- Section 24(1)(b): messages known to be false and sent for the purpose of causing a breakdown of law and order or posing a threat to life, including causing such messages to be sent.
The existing penalty remains a fine of up to ₦7 million, imprisonment for up to three years, or both.
The phrase “causes such messages to be sent” extends the provision beyond the person who originally composed a message. It may encompass a person who deliberately forwards, republishes or arranges for another person to transmit the prohibited message. This recognises that the harm associated with an electronic communication can be amplified through its subsequent circulation. A person who knowingly participates in that circulation cannot necessarily escape responsibility merely because someone else authored the message. The warning here is to beware of the type of messages you forward or repost.
Case Study Scenario 1:
Example: A writes a defamatory post. B reposts it. C screenshots the post and uploads it to Instagram. D makes a TikTok video repeating the allegation. E sends it to a WhatsApp group containing 200 members. Who has published the defamatory allegation?
The digital age challenges the assumption that there is only one publisher. A statement may pass through hundreds of individuals, each contributing to its wider dissemination. Law students must, therefore, distinguish between merely receiving information and deliberately communicating it to others. The fact that someone writes, “I did not originate the story; I only reposted it,” does not necessarily resolve the question of liability. Republication itself may amount to publication, within the context of Section 24 of the Cybercrimes Act 2015 (as amended).
- How Technology has Facilitated Commission of Crimes including cyberstalking and cyberbullying
One of the unfortunate consequences of technological advancement is that it has, in various ways, facilitated the commission of crimes. Kidnapping provides a clear example. Once a victim falls into the hands of kidnappers, the victim’s communication device, particularly a mobile phone, is often immediately seized. The device then becomes an instrument in the hands of the kidnappers, who may use it to contact the victim’s family or associates and negotiate the payment of ransom.
In much the same way, technological advancement has significantly facilitated the commission of criminal intimidation by making the creation, transmission, and dissemination of threatening or intimidating communications faster, easier, and capable of reaching a far wider audience. Imagine the following situation:
Cas Study Scenario 2
A Nigerian university student posts on X that a lecturer “collects money before allowing students to pass examinations”. Within twenty-four hours, the post may have been viewed 500,000 times. You may find several blogs reproducing it. TikTok creators discussing the allegation, and screenshots circulate on WhatsApp. In the end, the allegation may be false.
So, what we have these days is that through mobile phones, instant messaging applications, social media platforms, electronic mail, and other digital communication channels, WhatsApp, Facebook, X, Instagram, email, SMS, or another computer system/network, a person may communicate threats, false statements, exert pressure, or engage in conduct calculated to cause fear or compel another person to act, or refrain from acting, in a particular manner. Therefore, what has changed is not necessarily the basic nature of defamation. What has changed dramatically is the medium, speed, and audience of the publication.
The digital environment has also altered the character and impact of intimidation. A threat that might once have been communicated privately and within a limited geographical space can now be transmitted almost instantaneously across jurisdictions and reproduced repeatedly through forwarding, reposting, screenshots, and other forms of electronic dissemination. In some cases, offenders may exploit anonymous accounts, pseudonyms, encrypted communication platforms, or remotely operated devices in an attempt to conceal their identity or distance themselves from the threatening communication.
Technology may therefore increase not only the speed and reach of intimidating conduct but also its persistence and psychological impact. Threatening messages, images, audio recordings, videos, or other digital materials may remain accessible for prolonged periods and may be circulated to family members, employers, colleagues, or the general public. Where the threat concerns a person’s safety, property, reputation, livelihood, or other legitimate interest, the capacity for rapid and widespread digital dissemination may intensify the coercive effect of the conduct.
At the same time, the use of technology creates important evidential and legal consequences. Electronic communications may leave digital footprints capable of assisting investigators and courts in identifying the origin, content, timing, and transmission of an alleged threat. Accordingly, technology occupies a dual position in the law of criminal intimidation: it may serve as an instrument through which the offence is committed, while also generating electronic evidence that may be relevant to the investigation and prosecution of the offender.
Conclusion
The digital age has transformed the means by which intimidation is perpetrated, extending its reach, persistence and capacity to inflict harm. A threatening communication transmitted through a mobile phone or social media platform may originate far from its victim, yet produce immediate fear and serious consequences. The central challenge is, therefore, to ensure that the law responds effectively to these harms while preserving the freedom of expression essential to a democratic society.
For us as legal practitioners, scholars and students, the responsibility is to develop a jurisprudence that understands technology without abandoning fundamental legal principles. Citizens, too, must recognise the responsibility that accompanies the power to publish, forward and amplify information. Before sharing a message, we should consider its truth, its purpose and its likely consequences.
Ultimately, the measure of a sound legal response will be its ability to protect people from credible threats and coercion while allowing lawful disagreement and public criticism to flourish. Our task is to ensure that the digital space remains a place where people can speak freely, participate responsibly, and live without fear.
Thank you for your attention.
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