Combating computer banking fraud in Nigeria; prospects and challenges
Computer banking fraud is a crime that has been around almost as long as computer banking itself. Anytime there is a large amount of money floating around there are always going to be people trying to figure out ways to get it, Nigerians are not an exception. Olatunji a Lagos based trader is currently apprehensive of using his card for transaction. He explains that fraudsters blocked his mobile phone in order to make it difficult for his bank to communicate with him, before invading his computer banking platform and transferring $13,000 to a ghost account. Attempts to get his bank to rectify the issue was fruitless as his bank blamed him for negligence.
However just like olatunji a lot of other customers have also had similar harrowing experiences. Perharps more disappointing is the fact that the perpetrators of such heinous acts generally go unscathed and victims frustrated by inability to pursue legal actions against such individuals or organisations. It will be pretentious to assume that with the few computer banking fraud convictions achieved by the Economic and Financial Crime Commission to date in Nigeria, we are achieving much in our fight against computer banking fraud. The main bottleneck obstructing a decisive war against such computer banking fraud in Nigeria all boils down to legislation, some are elucidated hereunder.
The Nigerian constituition does not define computer banking fraud. Section 36(12), 1999 constituition of the federal republic of Nigeria (as amended) provide thus:
“A person shall not be convicted of a criminal offence unless that offence is defined and the penalty thereof prescribed in a written law: and a written law refers to an act of the national or the law of a state”. Thus computer banking fraud being undefined by and uncodified in the Nigerian constituition means that such crime is not punishable. This is clearly a major hindrance in combating computer banking fraud in Nigeria.
Similarly, the Nigerian constituitions clearly prescribes punishment for attempt to commit crime, most popurlarly,attempt to commit murder. This is not the case in fraud cases. Fraud generally speaking is an act commited with and intention to deceive in order to gain undue advantage of someone. In order for it to be fraud in the legal sense, the person on whom the fraud was sought to be commited should have necessarily fallen prey to it. If an attempt of fraud was made but the person concerned was not deceived, it is not fraud as understood legally and such a person cannot be persecuted and convicted by a law court. This in in simplest form means that individuals or organisations caught trying to commit computer banking fraud will almost certainly not be convicted of such crimes as it is not punishable under Nigerian laws.
As a result of the aforementioned legislative ineffiencies, law enforcement agencies are condemned to persecute computer banking fraud by the repertoire of traditional crime legislation. These traditional provisions most popularly section 4, subsection 1, paragraph 9 of the Nigerian criminal code act which are used to persecute fraud related cases is grossly archaic anddoes not take into consideration current technological realities and would most probably pass for a cold war relic fit for the museums.