In September of last year in Nigeria, 39-year-old Chioma Okoli took to Facebook to voice her opinion about a can of tomato sauce she had recently bought, claiming that it contained too much sugar and asking her friends and followers to express their opinions as well.
Somehow, Okoli’s post went viral on the Internet, 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 made the canned tomato puree. She asked Okoli to stop bashing the product and just try something else, but Okoli was more determined on her claims. She asked the person to ask her brother to stop kidding people with his product.
On September 24, while she was at church in Lagos, Okoli was approached by policemen in plain clothes for “instigating (煽动) Erisco Foods Limited, knowing the said information to be false under Section 24 (1) (B) of Nigeria’s Cyber Crime Prohibition Act.” She was kept in a cell for a day before being flown to Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, where she was released on administrative bail (保释).
Erisco Foods Limited, the company that makes the tomato sauce Chioma Okoli referenced in her Facebook post, is also going after the Nigerian woman. It filed a N5 Billion ($3 million) lawsuit (诉讼) against her, claiming that the bad publicity caused it serious problems. And, despite pressure from the general public, the founder of Erisco, Eric Umeofia, said he would rather die than allow anyone to ruin the reputation he spent 40 years building.
For voicing her opinion on social media, Chioma now faces up to seven years in prison, a fine of 7 million naira ($5,000), or both. She is due in court on April 18 for her arraignment (提审).
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