E- Money – Court Slams 10 Years Prison Term
E- Money angered by the sheer accusation of being behind the murder of Junior Pope to enable him covert his wife, approached a court to punish a blogger and comedian behind the accusation.
Junior Pope who died in a boat mishap while enrout to his film shooting location raised controversies in the internet.
From TC Virus being responsible to the sailor not knowing how to sail a boat, rumors kept flying from different angles.
In the end, most rumors were only aimed to grow pages or chase clout on the internet. The recklessness of rumor peddlers has landed one in a hot soup.
Stanley Okoruwa was arrested by Logos police for defamation of the character of E-money. The blogger and comedian was later sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Speaking after the judgement that found him capable of defamation. The blogger confessed that he knew nothing about E-Money nor Junior Pope. He said his sole aim of accusing E-money was to grow his Facebook page.
The judgement has sent shock wave across Nigeria, with some bloggers and comedians condemning the judgement, while others praised the judgement, saying it should serve as a lesson to others.
Bloggers and comedians in Nigeria have had field days, randomly accusing innocent people and making intentional false claims against people with the intention to gain traffic.
This judgement followed multiple cases of cyber stalking which involved Ijele Speaks and VeryDarkMan who were respectively detained for cyber stalking.
Nigerian bloggers and comedians have found it hard to differentiate between freedom of speech and criminal speech. Most have found solace in randomly making accusations to the delight of their followers.
Since Facebook declared that Nigerian Facebook owners will start monetization, efforts have increased among Nigerian online bloggers and comedians to meet the criterials for monetization.
The effort has caused obsession with fake news and random accusations. The death of Junior Pope caused a public stir, with accusations coming from one person to another.
Some accused entire Nollywood of being behind the death of Junior Pope, while others accused his colleagues. All the comedians and bloggers barely have knowledge of the cause of the death.
Stanley after his sentencing pleaded for mercy, saying that he meant no bad or had evil intentions towards Emoney. He said the accusation was only to make ends meet.
These bloggers often decline to consider the emotional harm they cause their victims, while only focusing on chasing clouts or promoting their pages on false and offensive narratives.
Will this serve as a learning curve for Nigerian bloggers and comedians?
It would be hard to see changes, with VeryDarkMan going back into detention weeks after being released for repeating the same crime he was previously charged with.
Sympathisers have called on the Nigerian business mogul E-money to consider the plight of the boy who appeared to be ignorant of his actions.
Earlier, E-money had promised to take care of the children of the late Junior Pope, and he knows that accusation of such magnitude could hamper the implementation of his promises to the family of the late actor.
