A lady named Okoye Blessing Nwakaego has been sentenced to three years in prison by the Federal High Court sitting in Lagos for cyberstalking Nollywood actress Eniola Badmus on the social media app, TikTok. The conviction was based on her guilty plea to a two-count charge of cyberstalking.
Despite the sentence, Justice Nicholas Oweibo took into account the convict’s remorse and offered her an alternative: paying a fine of N150,000 instead of serving jail time.
According to the charge, Nwakaego and one Chimabia (who is currently at large) conspired to commit the offense between December 2022 and July 2023 in Lagos. They were accused of transmitting communication through TikTok, Gossipmill TV, remedy blog, and other social media networks using her mobile number.
Her conduct, according to the police, was “grossly offensive, false, and for the purpose of causing annoyance, inconvenience, danger, insult, injury, criminal intimidation, enmity, hatred, and needless anxiety to the prejudice of Badmus.”
During the court proceedings, it was revealed that the offence violated sections 24(1)(b)(2)(a)(c) and 27 of the Cybercrimes Act, 2015.
The prosecution counsel, Nosa Uhumwangho, while presenting the case, informed Justice Oweibo that Nwakaego admitted to creating the video after being encouraged by a male friend.
He said: “Blessing said a friend who claimed to know Eniola Badmus narrated the false story to her and that she in turn, narrated the story to a male friend Chimabia, who asked her to do a video of the false story that Eniola Badmus specialises in introducing young Nigerian girls to men.
“Blessing said after making the video, Chimabia gave her N200,000 and asked her to post it on her Tiktok from where other platforms picked it.”
Nosa said over three million viewers viewed the maligning video online.
