Old Wine in New Bottles? Critical and Comparative Perspectives on Identity Crimes under the Nigerian Cybercrime Act 2015

This article critically analyses the provisions on identity theft and identity fraud in the Nigerian Cybercrime Act passed in 2015. The objective of the article is to provide answers to three pressing questions: What was the law on identity crimes before the Cybercrime Act? How has the law addressed the peculiar challenges of identity theft and identity fraud online? Are the provisions of the law adequate and if not how should the law otherwise respond? This article provides an in-depth legal analysis of the relevant provisions of the law and highlights the gaps in the law through comparative analysis with UK and US laws. While the article proposes amendments to make the Nigerian law more effective in combatting identity crime, it also invariably pushes for harmonisation and consistency in the approach of national laws to the crime.