Nigerian woman faces 7 years in prison for bad review of tomato paste (4 photos)
On social networks, a woman complained about the too cloying sweet taste of the product, and after some time she was arrested.
A case has been filed against 39-year-old Chioma Okoli in a civil court in Lagos. The woman is a blogger with an audience of 18 thousand, which is quite a success for Nigeria. In one of her posts, a Nigerian woman left a negative review of tomato paste, saying that it was “pure sugar.”
Two weeks after this, the woman was arrested. The tomato paste manufacturer claims that the blogger colluded with some competitors or ill-wishers to turn customers against the product, and in fact, her words are a lie.
Chioma Okoli was arrested in a church while she was attending a service. The woman is now in her 4th month of pregnancy, she already has three children, but these circumstances did not affect the conditions of detention of the detainee - she had to spend several hours standing in the cell. In addition, according to the arrested person, the ceiling in the room was leaking.
If the blogger’s conspiracy with other persons is proven to denigrate the tomato paste manufacturer, the woman faces up to seven years in prison. If the court recognizes incitement as the motive for the woman’s actions, the punishment will be more lenient - up to three years in prison and a fine of more than $4,500.
The manufacturer also wants to receive compensation from the blogger for the fact that several suppliers broke contracts with him. He demands that the blogger pay damages in the amount of more than $3 million. The owner of the tomato paste company also said that he would not allow some upstart to ruin the business to which he devoted 40 years of his life.
The trial of the Nigerian woman will take place on May 20. This is the very case when you can only be glad that in our country you can leave even an unflattering review about a product and not go to jail.