A lady might face a jail term after she wrote an online review about a tin of tomato puree and the manufacturer accused her of making a “malicious allegation” that indicted his business, and consequently created marketing problems for it.
The lady, Chioma Okoli is a 39-year-old entrepreneur who resides in Lagos and she is being prosecuted at court for allegedly breaching the country’s cyber-crime laws, in a case that has gone rival and induced protests by Nigerians who believe she is being witch-hunted for exercising her right of free speech. Ms. Okoli, a small-scale importer of children’s wear, told journalists that on 17 September 2023, she asked her 18,000 followers on Facebook to share their opinions about tomato puree she bought instead of her usual brands. She said that she found it too sweet.
Her post was accompanied by a photo of an opened can of Nagiko Tomato Mix manufactured by Erisco Foods Limited, a Lagos-based food manufacturing company. It instantly ignited a variety of reactions from commentators. One of them replied to Okoli’s posting: “Stop spoiling my brother’s product. If you don’t like it, use another one rather than bring it to social media or, better still, call the customer service.”
Okoli replied: “Help me advise your brother to stop ki***ing people with his product. Yesterday was my first time of using and it’s pure sugar.”
A week later, on September 24, she was arrested. In legal filings made available to the media, the Nigeria Police Force alleged that Okoli made the Facebook posting “with the intention of instigating people against Erisco Foods.” In a statement on 7 March this year, the police said that it had “unearthed compelling evidence” against her from its preliminary investigations.
According to the police, Okoli was charged with “instigating Erisco Foods Limited, knowing the said information to be false under Section 24 (1) (B) of Nigeria’s Cyber Crime Prohibition Act.” If found guilty, she could face up to three years in jail or a fine of 7 million naira (about £4,3750 or both.
She was also charged with conspiring with two other individuals “with the intention of instigating people against Erisco Foods Limited,” which was punishable under Section 27(1)(B) of the same act. She risks a seven-year jail term if convicted of this charge.
Okoli is also being sued separately by Erisco, which said in a statement issued on January 19 that it was defending its reputation after her comments “resulted in several suppliers deciding to disassociate themselves from us.”
The Lagos-based food company said because it “suffered the loss of multiple credit lines” it had therefore filed a civil lawsuit against Okoli that sought 5 billion naira (more than $3 million) in damages. The case is due for hearing on May 20, her lawyer, Inibehe Effiong, told journalists.
A spokesman for Erisco Foods, Nnamdi Nwokolo confided to journalists that the company would not speak further on the case “because it is pending in a court of competent jurisdiction.”
Okoli, is currently pregnant with her fourth child. She said she was arrested by plainclothes police while she was in Church in Lagos and detained in a leaking police cell. “I was put in the cell around 6 p.m. on September 24. There were no seats, so I stood up all through the night till the next day. My legs were inside the water that came in from the leaking roof. Sometimes, I squatted to reduce the pressure on my legs. I was thinking about my children who were at home. I was talking to myself. I would think, I would pray, I was messed up,” she said.
The following day, Okoli was flown to Abuja, and held at a police station until her release on administrative bail was finalized a day later. Agreeing to apologize publicly to Erisco was one of the conditions for her release on bail, she said, but her lawyer, Effiong, told the media she agreed to this under duress and therefore did not apologize after her release. The police first filed their case against Okoli in an Abuja court on 5 October last year. The first court hearing took place on 7 December. She was represented by her lawyer and did not attend court in person. A month later, on 9 January, Okoli said the police entered her Lagos residence and attempted to arrest her again, even in the face of a restraining order issued by a court on November 8 barring her arrest without a court order. She made a copy of the restraining order available to journalists.
“They stayed in my building from 6:30 a.m. until 5:30 p.m. My children couldn’t go to school that day and we couldn’t go out to get food because the cooking gas was finished,” she said. Eventually, she said, the police left.
When contacted by journalists, the national police spokesman Olumuyiwa Adejobi said he could not comment on the case as the matter was in court. “We will comment on the case when the court decides,” Adejobi said.
Effiong told journalists that Okoli’s legal team was now gearing up for the two legal cases, which he described as a David vs. Goliath battle. “In this case, we believe that David is right, and Goliath is wrong,” Effiong said. Effiong had filed a N500 million countersuit on behalf of Okoli against both Erisco and the police at a Lagos court, challenging her arrest and detention, which he said violated her constitutional rights to personal liberty and freedom of movement. In court papers relating to the countersuit, Effiong argued that his client’s arrest was also a breach of her constitutional right to freedom of expression. He said that he would also ask the Abuja court where she is being tried for cybercrime violations to transfer the case to Lagos, where she lives, at the next hearing, set for April 18.
Nigerian legal and public affairs analyst Kelechukwu Uzoka told journalists that there were limits to the freedom of speech defence. “No law guarantees absolute freedom,” he said. “While we have our freedom of expression, there are limitations. You can’t defame or malign someone.”
However, he also said that “cybercrime is difficult to prove in court. You have to prove actual harm when the post was made. Erisco must prove that the Facebook post by Okoli really affected its business as at the point it was made.” He noted that in Okoli’s post, she used a word with three asterisks, which could be open to various interpretations.
“Harassment and intimidation of Chioma Okoli must end now,” Amnesty International Nigeria said earlier last month, as Nigerians began crowd-funding online to support her legal fees. Okoli’s case has sparked protests at Erisco Lagos. Many on social media have called for a boycott of its products. The company’s founder, Eric Umeofia has bluntly refused to budge, saying in a recent documentary on Arise Television Channel that he won’t drop the lawsuit against Okoli and that he would “rather die than allow someone to tarnish my image I worked 40 years to grow.”
