A federal high court in Lagos State has jailed a female TikTok user, Nwakaego Okoye, for three years imprisonment for cyberstalking Nollywood actress, Eniola Badmus.
According to The PUNCH, the verdict was passed by the presiding judge, Justice Nicholas Oweibo, on Wednesday.
Nwakaego was convicted by the judge subsequent to her admission of guilt in relation to a two-count accusation of cyberstalking.
After taking into account the convict’s expression of sorrow, Justice Oweibo provided her with the alternative of paying a fine of N150,000 instead of serving a prison sentence.
As per the allegation, Nwakaego and an individual named Chimabia (who is currently evading capture) allegedly engaged in a conspiracy to conduct the aforementioned offence within the time frame of December 2022 to July 2023 in the city of Lagos.
The offence was found to be in violation of Sections 24(1)(b)(2)(a)(c) and 27 of the Cybercrimes Act of 2015.
Okoye, who was detained for uttering disparaging remarks about actress Eniola Badmus, admitted that she had done so in exchange for N200,000 from a friend named Fortune Ibe.
In a video tape in which she apologises for her behaviour, Okoye claims that she was driven to act in such a way by desperation and that she needed the money to pay her rent.
Okoye said, “What happened was that a friend of mine, Fortune Ibe, said if I should come out and talk about Mrs Eniola Badmus, he was going to send me N200k because I told him about my rent.
“That was what prompted the video. I am so sorry; I just did that because I was desperate to pay my house rent. I just did it because of the money.”
Meanwhile, following Okoye’s detention, Badmus turned down appeals to settle the case outside of court, instead charging her with slandering her hard-earned reputation.
