Citizens Gavel, in collaboration with LightRay Media has charged Nigerians to stop patronizing unregistered loan Apps, stating that loan App defamation is a criminal offense in Nigeria.
“Loan apps that engage in spreading false and damaging information to spite the customer are liable to imprisonment at least one year,” they stated.
They said, “Citizens’ gavel has received over 600 cases on loan app defamation. This is why we are trying to put out a collective class action to put an end to loan app defamation in Nigeria,” saying, “We want to ensure Nigerians are no longer victims of this illegal practice.”
Speaking about loan App defamation, Barrister Funmi emphasized that another law, “the Cyber crime prohibition and prevention Act of 2015,” provides a framework for prosecuting cybercrime.”
Continuing, Funmi said, “Any person who knowingly or intentionally transmits any communication through a computer system or network to bully, threaten or harass another person, or place that person in a position of fear, of death, of violence or bodily harm is liable to 10 years imprisonment and a fine of 25 million naira.”
Responding to questions on how to identify loan app that has been registered, Barrister Funmi said, “We can easily identify loan app that are registered from the federal competition and consumer protection website, which regularly updates the list of digital money lenders that are register with them.”
She added, “We have cases of atrocities that are being committed by these loan apps in a bid to recover their unpaid loan from their customers.”
She said, “This defamation has to stop, at citizen Gavel, we are working with the government to stop this act,” adding that, “At citizens’ Gavel, we discovered that the atrocities are dominated by those apps that are not registered.”
She stated, “In section 35 of data protection Act, it is a criminal offence for a digital loan app to access the details of their customers in order to recover their money.”
She said, “Don’t suffer this injustice in silence, reach out to citizens Gavel.”
Also speaking, Barrister Femi said, “What we are doing at Gavel is to help Nigerians understand that they can patronize loan apps that are registered and licensed,” even as he advised Nigerians to patronize only loan apps that are registered with the CBN,” stating, “It makes it easy to litigate against loan apps that defame citizen and get justice for the citizens,” adding that, “If loan apps are not registered, holding them accountable will be difficult.”
Lady Ejiro Emukoro added, “Nigerian can create a safer borrowing environment, protect borrower’s right, and ensure that loan apps serve as a responsible and reliable financial resources for individuals in need.”
“Stop patronizing loan apps that are not registered in order to put an end to loan app defamation in Nigeria,” Citizens’ Gavel charged Nigerians, stating that it had received over 600 cases on loan defamation. It advised Nigerians to record their interactions with the illegal loan apps to be able to strongly establish an act of defamation.
Stating further, Lady Ejiro Emukoro said, “As a citizen, and organisation, including those who are homeless, we are all stakeholders, and we want to come to a stage where our citizens will become more civic intelligent, economically intelligent, socially intelligent and financially intelligent.” She added, “There’s no way we want to combat these crises if we also do not give priority to self- accountability.”
She said, “There are so much to be done in terms of citizens awareness, citizens smartness, and smart thinking strategies.”
She added, “I am happy Funmi spoke about the roles CAC, Consumer Protection, and Digital Communication have to play here.
She said, “The fact that all of this is happening and the NCC is not even sitting up in that aspect to analyze, to monitor, and to investigate is worrisome, stressing that the Nigeria Bureau of Statics (NBS) should know who the Loan apps agents are.
She expressed concern about the development, wondering why the Nigerian space does not have protection agencies.
She stated, “No law in Nigeria allows any business organization to threaten your life, not even an individual can do that, which means as a people you need to know your rights.”
She added, “In a situation where a loan app needs to ask you for access to your camera, access to your audio, access to your images, you need to stop and think “Why would a loan company try to have access to a whole of these,” which means they are data collectors.
She continued, “Before you sign to agree to terms and conditions, you need to read it; you also need to understand, how they try to access you; what are the terms and conditions you signed? Do you have access to their email? Do you know where their office is located?
She queried, “You are taking a loan from someone but you don’t know where the office is located. This shows that we are gullible. If you don’t see a name “CAC,” you can speak to lawyers who know how CAC works. You can also go to CAC to confirm. When you permit someone to do evil to you, remember you opened the door for that.”
“Their modus operandi is to exploit and abuse people’s rights,” she said.
