A Nigerian woman faces up to seven years in prison for allegedly violating her country’s cybercrime laws by posting a negative online review of a can of tomato puree, odditycentral.com reports.
In September last year, 39-year-old Chioma Okoli took to Facebook to express her opinion about a tin of tomato puree she had recently bought, claiming it contained too much sugar and asking his friends and followers to voice their opinions as well. Somehow, Okoli’s post went viral on social networking site Meta, generating over 3,000 comments, including one from a person claiming to be the sister of the founder of Erisco Foods Limited, the company that manufactured the canned tomato paste.
They asked Okoli to stop bashing the product and try something else, but the woman doubled down on her claims, asking the person to ask their brother to “stop fooling people with his product”. This ended up costing her as she was arrested a few days later and now faces up to seven years in prison.
“I went to dar Tin yesterday for tomatoes that I will use to make stew but I didn’t see my favorites so I decided to buy these,” Chioma Okoli wrote in his original Facebook post. “When I opened it, I decided to taste it, I was shocked! The sugar is way too much!”
Approached by plainclothes policemen and remanded in custody
On September 24, while at church in Lagos, Okoli was accosted by plainclothes policemen and remanded in custody for allegedly “instigating Erisco Foods Limited, knowing the said information to be false, under section 24 (1) (B) of the Nigerian Cybercrime Prohibition Act”. She was held in a leaky cell for a day before being flown to the Nigerian capital, Abuja, where she was released on administrative bail.
“There were no seats, so I stood all the time until the next day. My feet were inside the water (which came in from the leaking roof). Sometimes I would crouch down to reduce the pressure on my feet,” he said. Chioma Okoli for CNN Africa. “I was thinking about my children who were at home. I was talking to myself. I was thinking, I was praying, I was devastated.”
On October 5, 2023, the police filed the case against the woman, and the first court hearing took place two months later. A judge issued a restraining order preventing Okoli from being arrested without a warrant, but the expectant mother claims police still found ways to harass her, such as when they broke into her home in January and spent a whole day there.
“They stayed in my building from 6:30 in the morning 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 ran out,” he said. Okoli.
Erisco Foods Limited, the company that produces the tomato puree that Chioma Okoli referred to in his Facebook post, is also moving against the Nigerian woman. It filed a 5 billion nai ($3 million) lawsuit against her, claiming that the negative publicity caused her serious problems, such as losing several suppliers and several lines of credit. And despite pressure from the general public, Erisco founder Eric Umeofia said he would rather die than allow anyone to tarnish the reputation he has spent 40 years building.
