Wednesday, July 3, 2024 -The Federal Government has warned that the unauthorised disclosure or leakage of official documents, capable of impacting the country negatively, is a punishable offence.
Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Sen.
George Akume, gave the warning on Tuesday, July 2, in Abuja, at a workshop
organised by the Bureau for Public Service Reforms (BPSR) in collaboration with
the Office of the Government of the Federation (OSGF).
The workshop is themed: “Renewing hope and strengthening of
national unity through effective communication and the role of the Official
Secret Acts in maintaining confidentiality and national security.’’
Represented by Dr Nnamdi Mbaeri, Permanent Secretary in the
Office of the SGF, Akume said unauthorized leakage of sensitive official
documents constitutes a felony and there is no defence for such, either in the
Constitution or Freedom of Information Act.
Recall that Section 97 (2) of the Criminal Code Act of
Nigeria, provides: “Any person who, being employed in the public service,
without proper authority abstracts, or makes a copy of, any document the
property of his employer is guilty of a misdemeanour and is liable to
imprisonment for one year”.
Akume recalled that government had devised measures in the
past to contain the leakage of sensitive official information in MDAs through
the issuance of service-wide circulars by the Office of the Head of Civil
Service of the Federation in August 2021.
He said: “This was reinforced by the issuance of another
service-wide circular in February 2024 on the unauthorised circulation of
official documents with information on social media.
“This was done to re-emphasise other extant regulations
prohibiting unauthorised disclosure or leakage of official documents.
“There is the need to regulate the activities of the civil
society organisations who use the Freedom of Information Act to harass,
intimidate and siphon resources from public officers through the dissemination
of fake and unfounded information.
“This should be properly addressed by all the practitioners
in the communication and related industries.’’
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