UPDATE: TWO JOURNALISTS SENT TO PRISON FOR DEFAMATION IN KWARA
Read Time:3 Minute, 53 Second
Two online journalists, Gidado Shuaib and Olufemi Alfred, were found guilty of making a false statement regarding an agro-allied company with offices in the state and were given a three-month prison sentence by a magistrate court in Ilorin, Kwara State.
The court found the two defendants, who both worked for the online publication News Digest, guilty of criminal conspiracy and defamation.
The defendants were charged in court in November 2019 over the News Digest article that appeared in the 2018 edition and was captioned “Inside a Kwara factory where Indian hemp is legalized.”
The criminal plot and defamation charges were in violation of sections 97 and 392 of the penal code and were therefore penalized in accordance with those same portions of the law. The verdict was handed down on February 7.
Their indictment came as a result of a petition filed against them by Hillcrest Agro-Allied Industries Limited, which is based in the village of Amberi in the Ifelodun Local Government Area of the state at Kilometre 4 on the Ajase-Ipo Road.
According to the petitioner, the company that produces rice was depicted in the published article as a location where employees were free to smoke Indian hemp.
The company, Hillcrest Agro-Allied Industries Limited, said in court throughout the trial that the item in the online publication had seriously damaged the company and the petitioner’s finances and reputation.
The petitioner claims that the publication caused the company to experience significant financial loss and that, as a result, “the company was denied a loan facility to the tune of $10,000,000.00 (10 million dollars) by the funding partner known as the Arab Group in the United Arab Emirate and equally lost a deposit sum of $250,000.00 (250,000 dollars).”
Delivering judgement on the matter after about five years of legal battle, the magistrate, Mr A.S Muhammad said, “I have carefully considered the evidence of PW1 (Shakirat Yusuf) on the character of the convicts as well as considered the Allocutus made by learned counsel to the convicts and I have equally reflected on the provisions of sections 316 and 417 of the Kwara state administration of criminal justice law, 2018. In compliance with the provisions under S.417 (2) (d) of the Kwara state ACJL, 2018, I shall not pass a maximum sentence on the convicts.
“Premised on the forgoing for the offence of conspiracy, I sentenced the 1st and 2nd defendants to a fine of N40,000 only each or 2 months imprisonment in default of payment.
“On defamation, the 1st and 2nd convicts are sentenced to a fine of N60,000.00 only each or 3 months imprisonment in default of payment.
“For clarity, each of the convicts is to pay a fine of N100,000.00 only for the offences of conspiracy and defamation respectively, having been convicted in default of payment, the sentence shall run concurrently.
“Rights of Appeal exist within 30 days”, the presiding magistrate said.
But reacting to the sentencing, the counsel to the journalists, A.S Ibraheem Gambari Esq, insisted that journalists have the right of appeal and that efforts are on top gear towards exercising that constitutional right.
Gambari stated that they were still studying the judgement and will do the needful soonest. They noted that if not for some administrative delays in obtaining the Certified True Copy of the judgement from the court’s registry, “the notice of appeal would have been filed by now.”
The counsel revealed that “there was evidence before the trial court that the police report which purportedly indicted our clients came into existence even before they were invited by the police. In other words, the police had already found them culpable long before they were invited to state their own side of the story.
“Also, an ex-employee of the company testified before the court that he was not only a witness to how smoking of Indian helm pervaded the site but equally, it was the persistent smoking of the Indian helm that informed his decision to sever his employment with the company. What’s more, in order to establish the verisimilitude of his assertion, the same witness tendered his bank statement evidencing the receipt of his monthly salaries from the company during the period where smoking was prevalent. It therefore remains a conundrum how the court found them guilty in the face of this empirical evidence among others.”
Gambari added that they believe that “justice will be achieved at appeal so that patriotic youthful elements in the society like our clients will not be discouraged from embarking on their respective altruistic endeavours.”
Happy
0 %
Sad
0 %
Excited
100 %
Sleepy
0 %
Angry
0 %
Surprise
0 %
1
0