Nigerian influencer faces jail after damning online review of tinned tomato puree
A pregnant Nigerian businesswoman is facing up to seven years in prison after she shared a negative review of a tin of tomato puree.
Chioma Okali, 39, was arrested and held in a police cell after she told her 18,000 Facebook followers there was too much sugar in Nagiko Tomato Mix.
The brand’s manufacturer, Erisco Foods Limited, accused her of making the claim to “maliciously kill the product and run us out of the market”.
The mother of three, who runs a business importing children’s clothes, is now being prosecuted and sued in a civil court over claims she breached the country’s cybercrime laws.
On September 17 Ms Okoli shared a picture of an open tomato puree can saying it was too sweet and asking for her followers’ opinions on the product.
One user told her to “stop spoiling my brother’s product”, to which she responded by saying it was “pure sugar”.
A week later she was arrested by undercover police officers while she attended a church service.
Describing the police cell, she told CNN: “There were no seats, so I stood all through till the next day... I was thinking about my children who were at home. I was talking to myself. I would think, I would pray, I was messed up.”
She also claimed police tried to arrest her at her home in January despite a restraining order issued by a court barring her detention without a court order.
The Nigerian police force said earlier this month that it had “unearthed compelling evidence” that she had violated laws in relation “to the proper use of the cyberspace”.
Mr Okoli was reportedly charged with “instigating Erisco Foods Limited, knowing the said information to be false under Section 24 (1) (B) of Nigeria’s Cyber Crime Prohibition Act”.
If found guilty, she could face up to three years in jail or a fine of £4,000.
She was also charged with conspiring “with the intention of instigating people against Erisco Foods Limited” under another section of the same law. It carries a possible prison sentence of up to seven years.
Ms Okoli is also being sued in a separate £2.8 million civil case brought by Erisco.
Nnamdi Nwokolo, a spokesman for the company, said he would not comment on an ongoing case.
Eric Umeofia, Erisco’s founder, previously told Arise Television he would “rather die than allow someone to tarnish my image I worked 40 years to grow”.
