Ministry of Justice Seeks New Measures to Address AI-driven Cybercrimes

Emma Okonji

The Federal Ministry of Justice, in collaboration with its foreign and local partners, is seeking new ways to prosecute cybercrime offenders, especially the Artificial Intelligence (AI) assisted cybercrimes.  

The stakeholders in Nigeria’s criminal justice system also called for stronger digital evidence management, inter-agency collaboration and continuous capacity building to help the country stay ahead of increasingly sophisticated cybercrimes.

They made the call during a specialised training on Cybercrime, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Digital Evidence for members of the Joint Case Team on Cybercrime (JCTC) and designated Federal High Court judges in Lagos.

The Director of Public Prosecutions of the Federation, Mr. Rotimi Oyedepo (SAN), while speaking on sideline of the training, said cybercrime has evolved beyond conventional hacking and online fraud.

According to him, AI assisted crimes, deepfakes, voice cloning, ransomware attacks, cryptocurrency enabled offences, identity theft and complex transnational cyber networks, are some of the new forms of cybercrimes.

“Our response cannot remain static. It must be innovative, intelligence driven, collaborative and forward looking. Cybercrime can not be tackled by isolated institutions because investigations increasingly crossed national borders and involved multiple agencies.” Oyedepo said.

Speaking about the training, Oyedepo said its inclusion of judges strengthened the criminal justice process because cybercrime investigations ultimately ended in the courtroom.

“With the four days training, participants are now better equipped to identify red flags, conduct diligent investigations and build stronger prosecutions,” Oyedepo further said.