The offense of Sexual blackmail, Sextortion and Revenge Porn: The rights and remedies of the victims.

A quick story:  A lady contacted me last month seeking for legal help and professional advise on what she should do; her ex boyfriend whom she used to send her nude pictures and videos to while they were dating started to extort money from her and always threaten to blackmail her with those pictures and videos if she ever try to refuse to send him the money he requested. This has been going on for a long time  and the ex keeps coming up with requests with the threat of releasing her nudes if she ever refuses to grant him his requests.

This kind of scenario falls into the Blackmail, Revenge porn and Sextortion category of the crime of sexual exploitation:

Blackmail is an act of coercion using the threat of revealing or publicizing either substantially true or false information about a person or people unless certain demands are met. In many jurisdictions of the world, including Nigeria, blackmail is a statutory criminal offense, carrying punitive sanctions of jail term for the perpetrators.

Also, Revenge porn is the illegal distribution of sexually explicit images or videos of individuals without their consent. Though the videos or images may have been made or taken with the knowledge and consent of the partner, it’s distribution without the consent of the partner is illegal and criminal. 

At the other hand, Sextortion is a special crime that occurs when someone threatens to distribute your nudes and private videos if you don’t grant him/her sexual favors, or pay him/her some money. The name was coined out to suit the act and it has long been a crime most criminal justice systems of the world are beginning to pay much attention to. It is a special category of sexual exploitation in which victims are threatened that their private pictures and videos will be released to the public if the victim fails to meet the demand of the blackmailer; the demand which is usually payment of some amount of money.

The sad news is, blackmailers and sextortionist are a greedy set of people, they never stop. They always keep coming back with requests upon requests with the same threat of releasing their victims’ private contents if their demands are not met.

But the good news is that there’s a way out of their hook…

It will be my pleasure to arm you with some laws in this regard as to what the laws say about the crime and punishment of the offense of sextortion, revenge porn and sexual blackmail and educate you on your rights and remedies if you ever fall into the trap of blackmailers and sextortionists and how to (legally) get off their hook.

The provisions of the Criminal code act at chapter 33, specifically from s.373 to s.376 provides for punishment of 1-2 years for the offense of defamation while sextortion or publication of defamatory matter with the intent to extort the victim carries a punishment of up to 7 years imprisonment term.

S.376 of the Criminal Code Act provides thus; 

Any person who publishes, or threatens to publish, or offers to abstain from publishing, or offers to prevent the publication of defamatory matter, with intent to extort money or other property, or with intent to induce any person to give, confer, procure, or attempt to procure, to, upon, or for, any person, any property or benefit of any kind, is guilty of a felony and is liable to imprisonment for seven years.

Similarly, S.23 (2) Cybercrime Act, 2015 in synchrony with the above provisions of the criminal code provides as follows: 

Any person who knowingly makes or sends other pornographic images to another computer by way of unsolicited distribution shall be guilty of an offence and upon conviction shall be sentenced to One year imprisonment or a fine of Two Hundred and Fifty Thousand Naira or both. Also, S. 24. Of the Cybercrime Act further provides;

Any person who knowingly or intentionally sends a message or other matter by means of computer systems or network 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)…commits an offence under this Act and shall be liable on conviction to a fine of not more than N7,000,000.00 or imprisonment for a term of not more than 3 years or to both such fine and imprisonment.

Mind you that these statutory provisions are not just some statues in retrospect; it is organic and it has been tested in courts. The most recent case of sextortion and sexual blackmails is the case where a boy in his 20s got hold of the private pictures and videos of a public figure in IMO state, he kept using those pictures of the man to taunt him and to force money out of him. The man got tired of succumbing to the blackmails, and decided to report to the police. The boy was tracked down and arrested. He was charged to the Magistrate court and the  court sentenced him to 1 year imprisonment in line with the provisions of s.373 to s.376 of the Criminal code Act and sections 23 & 24 of the cybercrime act 2015 both applicable in Imo state, Nigeria. (You can find this case on suit number: MCI/2C/2012).

The act of sextortion and revenge porn is not just a civil wrong, it is criminalized and the blackmailers risks a jail term of 1-7 years and when it involves an infant or a person who is under age, the punishment is more stiffer as the offender risks getting jailed for a term of 5- 10 years or N10-N20 million naira fine or even both the prison terms and the fine as it was clearly provided S.23 of the cyber crime act, 2015.

The most important thing to take home from this is: never you succumb to a sextortionist or a blackmailer, they’d never stop threatening and extorting you once you have given in at first, the best thing you should do (if you are caught in their trap) is to report to the police or go to a lawyer.

The way Nigerians celebrate it when a nude picture or some pornographic contents find its way into the social media platforms, especially if the nude or sex video is that of a popular individual or a celebrity points to how Nigeria (that prides herself as one of the most religious countries of the world with a high grossing number of fanatics and sanctimonious individuals) is just a hypocritical society and she is continually losing her moral values.

The sex tape of Oxlade, a 24 years old Nigerian singer has been on top of the trend tables since the beginning of this week across all the social media platforms in Nigeria. Users of the internet are so interested in analyzing the lad’s sex skills and sharing the videos around instead of condemning such act of the talented singer who is always making videos of himself naked or while having sex which always find its way to the internet space, leaked either by himslef or his friends and partners all for fun.

Things like these corrupt the moral values of the society and it is also illegal and criminal when you post or share indecent contents and pornographic videos in the Nigerian internet space.

Different Nigerian legislations criminalize posting and sharing of nudes and pornographic contents in the internet space and it carries severe punishments for the law breakers. The Cybercrimes (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2015, the Criminal Code which is applicable in southern Nigeria and the Penal Code which is applicable in the Northern jurisdiction all criminalizes the posting and sharing of obscene graphics and provides punishments for anybody that engages in such an act.

Section 24 of the Cybercrime Act provides as follows;

(a) Any person who knowingly or intentionally sends a message or other matter by means of computer systems or network that is grossly offensive, pornographic or of an indecent, obscene or menacing character or causes any such message or matter to be so sent;… commits an offence under this Act and shall be liable on conviction to a fine of not more than N7, 000,000.00 or imprisonment for a term of not more than 3 years or to both such fine and imprisonment.

Also, Section 170 of the Criminal Code Act which is applicable in Southern Nigerian jurisdictions provides;

Any person who knowingly sends, or attempts to send, by post anything which;

(b) encloses an indecent or obscene print, painting, photograph, lithograph, engraving, book, card, or article, or which has on it, or in it, or on its cover, any indecent, obscene, or grossly offensive words, marks, or designs; is guilty of a misdemeanour and is liable to imprisonment for one year.

These statutory provisions clearly show how much the Nigerian society frowns upon sharing and posting of pornographic contents in the internet space. Internet users who may think that sharing and posting of such contents is just for “cruise” and clout chasing should think twice as they are law breakers who, if caught and charged to court, could be looking at a 3 years imprisonment term.

Who wants to be a millionaire is back!

Who wants to be in Millionaire Naija is back after four years break. 

The show Who Wants to be a Millionaire is one of the most watched, talked about, educative and entertaining television shows in Nigeria where participants are asked to spell some difficult words or pick a right answer to a question to win some money and it was hosted by Frank Edoho.

It was a huge show sponsored by Mtn Nigeria not until 2017 when the show went off the air due to some unreconciled differences between the sponsors of the show and the host Frank Edoho. 

Frank Edoho took to his social media pages on Monday, 7th of February 2022 to announce that the show is coming back to starting from March 2022 with him remaining the host after the four years break the show took. He shared the good news by posting, “Hey everyone. I assume you know by now that I have been offered the role of Host of WWTBAM Series 2. My immense gratitude goes to all of you for hoping that I get the job. Thank you for your kind wishes and felicitations, God bless you all”.

With this year’s captioned, who wants to be a millionaire rebirth, series 2, participants are to win N20 million Naira.

Recall that Edoho had hosted the show from its inception on October, 8, 2004, until September 2, 2017 when the show went off the air. 

Meta, Facebook’s parent, has seen a significant drop in its market valuation since it reported nearly $1trn capitalization for the fourth quarter.

On Tuesday, the company’s shares dropped 2.1% to close at $220.18, making it 35% down this year and its lowest since July 2020. The drop has pushed Meta value below chipmaker Nvidia, which is now the seventh most valuable company in the US.

Not long ago Facebook was among the five most-valuable US companies, alongside Big Tech peers Apple, Microsoft, Amazon and Alphabet. However, Meta has since fallen to eighth, below Tesla, Berkshire Hathaway and now, for the first time, Nvidia.

On Tuesday, Meta’s market cap dropped to $599 billion, while Nvidia closed at $627 billion. Visa is next at $478 billion. The chip maker’s failure to purchase Arm did not affect its shares.

Nvidia announced overnight that it was ending its effort to buy chip technology firm Arm and would pay a breakup fee of $1.26 billion to Arm parent SoftBank. Nvidia scrapped the deal amid hefty regulatory challenges, including a probe in the U.K. and a lawsuit from the U.S. Federal Trade Commission.

Nvidia rose 1.5% on Tuesday to $251.08, and has been on a tear over the past two years, soaring over 300% since the start of 2020. The company has lost about 15% of its value since the start of the year as investors have sold out of risky tech stocks.

Nvidia, which reports fourth-quarter earnings next week, has been boosted by strong chip sales as its graphics processors are in high demand for artificial intelligence applications and advanced video games.

The company showed a drop in user numbers and warned about challenges ahead from Apple’s privacy changes. Meta’s first-quarter forecast missed estimates, sending the stock down a record 26% on Thursday.

Read also: Apple, TikTok and other factors threatening Meta’s existence 

Nvidia has recently made a bit of a come-back in terms of share price. The chipmaker made a whole bunch of cash in its final quarter of 2021, with gains up 50% year-on-year revenue, operating income up 91%, net income up 84% and massive margin gains.

Nvidia was founded in 1993 by three engineers: Jensen Huang, leather-clad company CEO; Curtis Priem, who retired from Nvidia in 2003; and Chris Malachowsky, who still works at Nvidia as a senior technology executive. The company has scaled through fierce competition with rivals such as Intel and TSMC to become now the seventh most valuable company in the US.

Meta still has a mountain of challenges to contend with as watchdogs around the world introduce strict rules around consumer privacy. The social media company has threatened to leave Europe if regulators enact rules that will stop it from sharing private data of users in Europe with the US. Though the rules are still under consideration, Germany and France said it will be a good thing if Meta makes its threat true.