Page 6 - THENIGERIAPOLICEFORCE AND CYBERPOLICINGASYNOPSIS

consequences such as negative feelings, apprehension, intimidation and so on. Cyber-stalking

has been identified as one of the most prevalent types of cybercrime in Nigeria (Igwe &
Ibegwam 2014; Saulawa & Abubakar 2014; Ndubueze, Hussein & Sarki 2017). In response

to this crime, the Nigerian government criminalizes “Cyber-stalking” in Cybercrimes
(Prohibition, Prevention Etc) Act 2015. The Act states that: any person who by means of a

public electronic communications network persistently sends a message or other matter that,
(a) is grossly offensive, pornographic or of an indecent, obscene or menacing character or

causes any such message or matter to be so sent; or (b) he knows to be false, for the purpose

of causing annoyance, inconvenience or needless anxiety to another or causes such a message
to be sent, commits the offence of Cyber-stalking (Saulawa & Abubakar, 2014).

Piracy

The growth of digital technology makes it very easy to perpetrate copy creative products
such as music, films, and the internet provides possibilities for pirated materials to be

transmitted all over the world. That is, piracy is another internet crime that implies copy of

others intellectual property without appropriate permission with the aim of making quick
money. Okpan and Anigbogu (2016) reported software piracy as one of the most prevalent

internet crimes in Nigeria today. Piracy represents one of the most alarming monetary
cybercrime that continue to get bigger. Similarly, Balogun and Obe (2010) highlighted that

Nigeria is losing billions of Naira to software piracy.

Hacking

Jaishankar (2011) argued that hacking has been an old problem but has not been studied in

depth. It is a global problem and is growing at a fast pace. This is a term that is used to refer
to a number of internet crimes like illegal access, defacing, hijacking, denial of services

attack, didding super zapping, eavesdropping among others (Balogun & Obe, 2010).

According to Saulawa and Abubakar (2014), the Nigerian hackers have specialized in
hacking security codes for e-commerce, fund point card and e-marketing product sites of

computer systems in order to steal money or destroy data. Hacking also involves other
cybercrimes such as credit card theft or Automated Teller Machine (ATM) fraud. As

observed by Adeniran (2008), Yahoo-boys engage in hacking, credit card scam pornography,
online fraud, phishing among others. Kurian (2006) argued that the there are two objectives

of a hacker: one, to prove to the world that a system owned by a large corporation or

government department, such as a country’s defense services, is vulnerable to external attack;

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