For the past couple of days, social media has been abuzz over
the arrest of controversial blogger, Kemi Omololu-Olunloyo over a post
she published on her blog in which she accused popular Port-Harcourt
pastor and the General Overseer of Salvation Ministries, David Ibiyomie
of adultery. Her arraignment before a Magistrate Court together with one
Samuel Walson, the publisher of a local tabloid in Port-Harcourt while
dressed in prisoners’ clothes caused quite a furore online.
But what really are the facts of the case?
Omololu-Olunloyo
was first arrested on the 17th of March in Ibadan by the police under
the Cybercrime Act and the Criminal Code Act for publishing a letter
from a member of Pastor
Ibiyomie’s church which accused him of
corruption and being involved with actress Iyabo Ojo. She broke the news
of her arrest on social media and was then driven to Port-Harcourt
where she was arraigned before a magistrate for publication of
defamatory matters alongside Walson who syndicated her story.
She
was held in prison until 23rd March when she was to have the hearing
for her bail application, but it was stalled by the absence of the
magistrate due to his being indisposed. The bail hearing finally held
yesterday and she and Walson were given bail in the sum of N200,000 and
two civil servants who reside in Port-Harcourt to stand as sureties. The
charge of cybercrime was also dropped against her for the court’s lack
of jurisdiction to try the matter.
Unfortunately for her,
she is still being held because she has another case against her on the
same matter, this time before a Federal High Court in Port-Harcourt for
defamation and false publishing. Also, all the charges against Walson
have been dropped, leaving her alone to face the music.
As it
stands currently, she is now facing a one-count charge of publication of
defamatory charges before the Magistrate Court and the Federal High
Court at the same time.
Also, while libel and slander are civil
offences in Nigeria, defamation and false publishing are crimes under
the Criminal Code Act (pdf) and a person found guilty of these is liable
for up to two years in prison (Sections 373 – 375 of the Act) or seven
years under the section with which she is being charged (Section
516A(1)).
This means that Omololu-Olunloyo is neither being held
extra-judiciously nor being tried outside the ambit of the law. However,
what is unusual is her wearing prison clothes to court, seeing as that
she is not a convict and as such, should not be wearing clothes meant
for prison inmates.
Her cases are still on-going with the one
before the Chief Magistrate Court coming up next on the 20th of May,
while the one before the Federal High Court has the dates of April 10th,
11th and 12th as the next court dates for accelerated hearing. Pastor
Ibiyomie has already been summoned to appear as a witness and explain
how he was affected by the publication.
We will continue to
follow the case closely as it is likely to be a landmark case in Nigeria
with respect to how bloggers and news sites publish news and content
Source: Ynaija.com
0 Comments