Defamation 3 Years In Jail – Babatunde Fashola, Eniola Badmus and Social Media

Question – What do the former Minister for Works and Housing and the Nigerian actress Eniola Badmus have in common?

Answer – In the last few weeks, they have both been in the news for defamation related complaints.

Babatunde Raji Fashola (BRF)

There were publications on social media by certain individuals alleging that the former Minister of Works and Housing was drafting a favourable judgment to be handed over to the Presidential Election Tribunal as it concerns the ongoing Presidential election petition.

BRF denied this, described the allegations as “baseless and defamatory”, and petitioned the Inspector General of Police to conduct an investigation and take necessary action.

Specifically, he stated that the allegations are made for the purpose of causing inconvenience, danger, criminal intimidation, enmity, hatred and needless anxiety to our Client, contrary to the provisions of section 24 of the Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention, Etc.) Act 2015.

Since the petition was made, it appears that individuals connected with the publications are missing, and it is alleged that the Department for State Security (DSS) are involved in their arrest – the DSS denies any involvement in arresting the individual.

Eniola Badmus

A TikToker named Ego Okoye in a viral video, accused Eniola Badmus of being a pimp and was involved in controlling prostitutes and profiting from their earnings by arranging clients for them. The video went on to claim that Badmus had even attempted to connect one of her acquaintances with a politician.

Ego Okoye later issued an apology to the actress for her misconduct. However, Eniola Badmus refused to accept the TikToker’s apology and decided to pursue legal action against her. She made a complaint to the police, and Ms Okoye was arrested and charged to court by the Nigerian police. T

Ms Okoye pleaded guilty to the charge and was convicted by the Federal High Court sitting in Lagos and sentenced to three years or in the alternative, a fine of N150,000.

Online statements and Real-world repercussions
The reason we are discussing these two cases, is because these are just a few of the many cases where we are seeing real life repercussions for things people have posted on blogs and social media. We are also seeing that famous people, whether politicians or celebrities are starting to use the instrument of law through defamation and the Cybercrimes Prohibition Act more and more to go after people that say things about them online.

What is Defamation?
Generally, defamation is a false statement of fact that is harmful to someone’s reputation, and published as a result of negligence or malice.

Defamation is any written or spoken false communication about a person (an individual or corporate body) from one party to another party carrying the legal effect of exposing the person spoken about to public contempt, scorn, humiliation or shame, that lowers the estimations and opinions of the person spoken about in the minds of right-thinking persons, or that affects the goodwill of the persons spoken about in their trades, businesses, livelihoods, or professions. Defamation is either slander – communications that consist of spoken words, signs or gestures; or libel – communications that are in written, typed or in readable formats.

Under Nigerian law, defamation can be a tort (a civil action) or a crime. The relevant criminal sections are sections 373-376 of the Criminal Code, Sections 391 – 395 of the Penal Code, and Section 6 of the Libel Act.

DID YOU KNOW?

What is the Cybercrimes Prohibition Act?
This law was passed in 2015 to address the types of crimes that can be committed online. We did a quick break down of the law here which you can read at your convenience – 10 Things to know about the Cybercrimes Prohibition Act.

For the purposes of this week’s newsletter however, there are two important sections that we should be aware of –

Section 24(1)(b) – Any person who knowingly or intentionally sends a message or other matter by means of computer systems or network that – he knows to be false, for the purpose of causing annoyance, inconvenience danger, obstruction, insult, injury, criminal intimidation, enmity, hatred, ill will or needless anxiety to another or causes such a message to be sent commits an offence under this Act and shall be liable on conviction to a fine of not more than N7m or imprisonment for a term of not more than 3 years or to both such fine and imprisonment.

Section 24(2)(a) – Any person who knowingly or intentionally transmits or causes the transmission of any communication through a computer system or network – (a) to bully, threaten or harass another person, where such communication places another person in fear of death, violence or bodily harm or to another person commits an offence and shall be liable on conviction to imprisonment for a term of 10 years and/or a minimum fine of N25m

In the past few years, a number of Nigerian bloggers have been arrested for criminal defamation including:

Ojo Emmanuel for allegedly defaming the wife of the Ogun State Governor in 2015;

Seun Olokuteyi for allegedly defaming the Fidelity Bank CEO, and Chris Uwandu for reposting on Facebook the alleged defamation by Seun Olokuteyi; and

Desmond Chima for allegedly defaming the UBA MD and Genevive Nnaji.

Yup…that’s a lot of arrests! So, how can you protect yourself? Well, you can protect yourself in these ways:

1. Always fact check and reference. If you are posting about people and institutions, and you suspect that what you are saying would be unfavourable, then you should make doubly sure that the facts are correct or published by a reputable entity.

2. Be careful about what you repost. If you are reposting an original post which appeared elsewhere, remember that you can’t really absolve yourself from liability by saying you weren’t the one who wrote the original post. In BRF’s complaint, he mentioned other individuals who though did not make the original post, had then reposted it on their platform.

Conclusion
As you can see, in Nigeria, talk may be cheap, but it could also be expensive, when the wrong thing is said about the wrong person. So, please be careful what you say and post online.

PS – Some may argue that criminalising statements – even if they are untrue could very quickly be used as a tool for oppression and for silencing the media and opposition by powerful people. This is a fair criticism and in fact some have taken the challenge to criticise these laws:

<p>The post Defamation 3 Years In Jail – Babatunde Fashola, Eniola Badmus and Social Media first appeared on SWP.NG.</p>