Cybercrime perspectives to the ‘ENDSARS’ protest in Nigeria

ABSTRACT Cybercrime investigators, in an attempt to rid Nigeria of cybercrime, go about arresting and demanding for digital devices, of unsuspecting members of the public, especially Nigerian youths. Upon seizing these digital devices, they compel the owners to surrender security features to gain access to the devices to fish for cybercrime evidence. The rampant nature of this investigative process partly culminated in the recent ‘ENDSARS’ protests in Nigeria that commenced in cyberspace with the hashtag #ENDSARS NOW. Although the ENDSARS protest has become a topic of discourse in the news, literature, and academic domain, there seems to be limited or no literature on the cybercrime perspectives of the protests. This paper seeks to answer the question: To what extent can cybercrime investigators legally gain access to digital devices and social networks of persons? It concludes that to avoid future protests against cybercrime investigators, implementing a structured cybercrime investigation process in conformity with best practices, as it is done in developed economies like the United States of America, is suggested.