The Nigeria Police Force public relations officer Olumuyiwa Adejobi held a press conference on Tuesday, parading a suspect, Chike Ibezim, whom they claim was involved in “conspiracy, criminal intimidation, cyber stalking and cyber bullying”.
This appeared to be a case of hiding behind the law to silence free speech. All Chike Ibezim appeared to have been “guilty” of was being the brother of Nnamdi Ibezim, who runs a Reportera Twitter handle that claimed that Babatunde Fashola, the former minister and former Lagos State governor, drafted the judgment of the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal, which on Wednesday dismissed all the petitions challenging the (s)election of Bola Tinubu as president.
The journalist Claud Cockburn once said “never believe anything until it’s been officially denied”. Fashola promptly instructed his solicitors to go after Reportera and its publishers for the allegation about his involvement in the tribunal judgment – which he should be entitled to under libel laws. Instead of leaving it to the courts to decide whether he was libelled, the former minister engaged in, what Fela Kuti would have called a “power show” by getting the police involved. It was a show of shame.
Publisher’s Brother In Police Net For Accusing Fashola Of Writing PEPT Judgment#PEPTJudgment pic.twitter.com/sFxSlD2kKY
— Channels Television (@channelstv) September 8, 2023
Firstly, the Nigerian police continues to ignore the rights of suspects by parading them in public. Secondly, while the Cybercrimes (Prohibition and Prevention Act) of 2015 creates an offence of “cyber stalking”, it is for the courts not the police to decide whether an offence has been committed. Section 24 of the Act defines “cyber stalking” as follows:
