BY AGNES NWORIE, ABAKALIKI
A Federal High Court sitting in Abakaliki, Ebonyi State capital, has declared the state’s controversial Cybercrimes Law No 12 of 202, unconstitutional, null and void.
The Court’s ruling followed a suit by one Pascal Etu, who had sued the State Governor, David Umahi, the State House of Assembly, the State Attorney General among others over the law.
Ebonyi State Government had in September 2021 enacted the law in a rather controversial circumstances, whereby apart from the House of Assembly members, no journalist or any other person was allowed access to the content of the law when enacted.
There was also no proof of the law going through public hearing before it was passed.
The public only became aware of the existence of the law when in October, a social critic, Godfrey Chikwere was arrested by the Police for allegedly flouting some sections of the law.
Earlier this year, Etu was arrested for allegedly flouting the same law. The same thing applied to the spokesperson of the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) in the State, Chika Nwoba.
The two were remanded in prison by the State Magistrate Court pending the determination of the allegations against them.
While the case against Etu was on at the Magistrate Court, he instituted legal procredings against the state government and four others at the Federal High Court in Abakaliki challenging the constitutionality of the law.
In the suit FCAI/CS/6/2022, Etu prayed the court to declare that the Ebonyi State House of Assembly has no powers to make such laws and that the law is unconstitutional, null and void as it runs contrary to the Cybercrimes Act passed by the National Assembly.
In his ruling, the presiding Judge, Justice Fatun Riman, granted all the prayers of the plaintiff by declaring the Ebonyi Cybercrimes Law 2021 unconstitutional, null and void also issued an order of injunction restraining the Ebonyi State Government from continuing to enforce the law.
Justice Riman further held that the Ebonyi State House of Assembly had no constitutional powers to make such laws because the National Assembly had enacted the Cybercrimes Act in 2015 which is applicable in all the states of the federation.
Reacting, Etu’s lawyer, Mike Odo, said that the Court, through the judgement reaffirmed the constitutional right to fair hearing and freedom of expression of every individual.
