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The Federal Government has announced that the unauthorised disclosure or leakage of official documents, capable of affecting the polity negatively, is now a punishable offence.
The Secretary to the Government of the Federation, George Akume, said this in Abuja at a workshop organised by the Bureau for Public Service Reforms in collaboration with the Office of the Government of the Federation.
The workshop was 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, the 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.
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 the government had devised measures in the past to curtail such illegal leakage of official document through the issuance of circulars by 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."
Akume commended the BPSR for organising the workshop, saying it underlined the importance the government places on the dissemination of correct and truthful information.
