RAYMOND OZOJI reports
The lawmaker representing Onitsha-North 1 state constituency in the 8th legislature of Anambra State, Hon. Barr. Mimi Ifeoma Azikiwe, has proposed an amendment to the Violence Against Persons Prohibition Law 2026, to criminalize video recording, audio recording as well as screenshoting of sexual intimacy, personal nudity and other private moments without consents.
Proposing the amendment, the erudite female lawmaker stated in very clear-cut terms that the social media and the Internet are replete with issues and cases where private intimate moments between adults were exposed to the world basically for ulterior motives and without the consents of the victims.
She explained that if a loved one taking a shower or exposes his or her nakedness supposedly to someone in a video call doesn't imply that the individual gave his or her consent to be recorded or screenshoted for some unconventional reasons.
According to her, the amendment which has to do with the introduction of section 29, involved protection of privacy and human dignity. She therefore noted that the main thrust of the section is the criminalization of nonconsensual recordings of intimate or private moments.
Azikiwe said everybody has a right to privacy and dignity as enshrined in the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and that no one should have their private moments recorded without their permissions.
That if someone is changing his or clothes in the house or indulging in an affair with a fellow consenting adult, such according to her, should be handled with the secrecy it deserves and not made public through unlawful recordings.
Azikiwe maintained that the amendment proposed that any intimate act or private act which includes any acts of sexual nature, acts of personal hygiene in toilet or bathroom facilities, changing of clothes, medical or personal care or any activity that is ordinarily performed in private; that any person commits an offence if he or she intentionally, knowingly or recklessly and without the express consent of another person, records them; capture them and screen record them; photograph, listens to or otherwise preserves an image, video, audio recordings, visual or audiovisual representation of another person, while the person is unclad or partially unclad, engaged in sexual activity, engaged in intimate or private act, is liable to 3 years imprisonment together with a fine of not less than N3 million.
Meanwhile majority leader of the House and member representing Ekwusigo state constituency, Hon. Sir Ikenna Ofodeme, in supporting the amendment, suggested that at the Committee level, members would equally consider the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to malign public office holders and other influential individuals in the society as part of the amendment.
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