The last may not have been heard on
the possible violation of the Nigeria’s Cyber Crime Act 2015, as the four who
registered the NigeriaAir.ng et al and FlyNigeriaAir.ng et al, may soon be in
the net of law enforcement agencies, reports ITRealms.
If found guilty according to the Section
25 of the Nigeria’s Cyber Crime Act 2015, violators who are likely the
registrants including Messrs Olumayowa Elegbede, Omo Naija Daada, Peter
Nwagbogu, and Philip Obin, may face 2-year jail term, N5m fine or both each.
As at press time, Nigeriaair.ng et al
were registered by Olumayowa Elegbede; Flynigeriaair.ng was registered by Omo
Naija Daada on July 19, 2018; Flynigeriaair.com.ng was registered by Peter
Nwagbogu on July 20, 2018 and Flynigeriaair.com was registered by Philip Obin
on July 18, 2018.
Cybersquatting, ITRealms gathered, is the practice of registering names, especially well-known
company or brand names, as Internet domains, in the hope of reselling them at a
profit.
According to the reports by Techpoint,
“As of July 18, 2018, the day of the unveiling, NigeriaAir.ng and
NigeriaAir.com.ng” were still available until Olumayowa Elegbede bought them
and immediately place both domains up for sale at $66,489 (about ₦24 million)
each.
Investigations also by ITRealms had revealed that the flynigeriaair.ng and
flynigeriaair.com.ng and flynigeriaair.com were all sold out, none has known
relationship with NigeriaAir or its operators, the Ethiopian Airline as at the
time of filing this report.
Further, ITRealms gathered that the Nigeria’s 2015 Cyber Crime
Act, stipulates on Section 25 tagged Cybersquatting that “Any
person who, intentionally takes or makes use of a name, business name,
trademark, domain name or other word or phrase registered, owned or in use by
any individual, body corporate or belonging to either the Federal, State or
Local Governments in Nigeria, on the internet or any other computer network,
without authority or right, and for the purpose of interfering with their use
by the owner, registrant or legitimate prior user, commits an offence under
this Act and shall be liable on conviction to imprisonment for a term of not
more than 2 years or a fine of not more than N5,000,000.00 or to both fine and
imprisonment.
(2) In
awarding any penalty against an offender under this section, a court shall have
regard to the following --‐
(a) a
refusal by the offender to relinquish, upon formal request by the rightful
owner of the name, business name, trademark, domain name, or other word or
phrase registered, owned or in use by any individual, body corporate or
belonging to either the Federal, State or Local Governments in Nigeria; or
(b) an
attempt by the offender to obtain compensation in any form for the release to
the rightful owner for use of the name, business name, trademark, domain name
or other word or phrase registered, owned or in use by any individual, body
corporate or belonging to either the Federal, State or Local Government of
Nigeria.
(3) In
addition to the penalty specified under this section, the court may make an
order directing the offender to relinquish such registered name, mark,
trademark, domain name, or other word or phrase to the rightful owner.
What is not yet clear is the punitive
measure put in place by the Nigeria’s domain name managers, the Nigeria
Internet Registration Association (NIRA) against any accredited registrar in
event of cyber-squatting.
Chuks Egbune/GEE
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