The Nigeria Police, Lagos State Command, has confirmed the arrest of an online blogger, identified as Stanley Okoruwa for allegedly defaming a businessman, Emeka Okonkwo, popularly known as “E-Money”.
The suspect, who was paraded before newsmen on Monday, confessed to the crime and claimed to have used the offending video to boost his followership online.
Okoruwa in the said video accused the businessman of having illicit affairs with the wife of the late Nollywood star, John Odonwodo, aka Junior Pope.
He also accused the businessman of being responsible for the death of the late Nollywood star, who died in a boat accident.
The spokesperson of the command, Benjamin Hundeyin, told newsmen that the suspect would be prosecuted for cyberbullying and defamation of character.
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He said that the suspect was arrested in Uromi, Delta State, following a petition from the businessman.
Hundeyin said, “He is going to be prosecuted because the things he engaged in were criminal in nature. He has allegedly defamed E-Money and he is going to be prosecuted.
“We are not prosecuting the suspect because of the personality involved, but because he has allegedly committed a crime, the personality goes through the normal channel by reporting the case to the police and we investigated and arrested the suspect.”
Hundeyin warned social media users against content that is injurious to other people’s personalities, stressing that action may be taken against them if reports of their content were found offensive by anyone.
The suspect, while speaking with newsmen, said “I did a video about E-Money. I said a lot of things that are not true in that video, that is why the police arrested me.”
He added, “I said something regarding a video I saw online about a woman – saying that Sir E-Money is responsible for the things that happened to Nollywood Actor, John Odonwodo, aka Junior Pope’s case.
“I said something like that, I also said that Sir E-Money was also having an affair with Junior Pope’s wife. I have never in my life met E-Money. Everything I made in that video was not true.”
Continuing, he said, ” I made the video out of trying to boost my page traffic level, I never knew it would go viral the way it went. I don’t have a bad intention to spoil Sir E-Money’s name. I was just making the video, I didn’t know it would go such wide.”
“I know the contents of the video were wrong of me to have made. I don’t know the video will escalate to that extent,” the suspect added.
Stanley stated, ” I saw that the video was already going viral, I thought pulling it down will not make sense. I decided to leave it. I have not reached out to E-Money to apologise, because I don’t have his contact to do so.
“I was already planning to make an apology video, that was when I was arrested by the police. I have been praying to have this opportunity to apologize to him. I am very sorry Sir E-Money, I don’t mean to tarnish his image, I didn’t mean to spoil his name online.”
