By Abimbola Ogunnaike
A Chief Magistrate Court in Wuse Zone 2, Abuja, presided by Emmanuel Iyanna has summoned five social media users for “criminal defamation” of the reputation of gospel singer, Mercy Chinwo; and her husband, Blessed Uzochikwa.
In the court summons dated Wednesday, 3 April, 2024, Iyanna ordered the five defendants to appear in person before the court on April 23, 2024.
The five defendants are: Okoronkwo Ejike, Kingsley Ibeh, DJ Spoiltkid, Terrence Ekot, and Samuel Agozie.
Uzochikwa had earlier filed a direct criminal complaint before the Chief Magistrate Court in Wuse Zone 2, Abuja, dated April 2, through his lawyers led by Pelumi Olajengbesi.
The document partly read, “On the 29th day of March 2024, the complainant and his legally married wife, Minister Mercy Chinwo, a gospel artist, posted the picture of their lovely son on their Facebook page in the spirit of celebrating the goodness of God to their family for the gift of a child.
“Immediately the said post was made on Facebook by the couple, one of their followers who is a mentee of the complainant drew the attention of the complainant to a post made by the first defendant in reaction to the couple’s post which read thus:’This is the true face of Mercy Chinwo’s child and she was hiding after giving birth but the truth is that the little baby looks exactly like Singer, Nathaniel Bassey.
The document partly read, “On the 29th day of March 2024, the complainant and his legally married wife, Minister Mercy Chinwo, a gospel artist, posted the picture of their lovely son on their Facebook page in the spirit of celebrating the goodness of God to their family for the gift of a child.
“Immediately the said post was made on Facebook by the couple, one of their followers who is a mentee of the complainant drew the attention of the complainant to a post made by the first defendant in reaction to the couple’s post which read thus:’This is the true face of Mercy Chinwo’s child and she was hiding after giving birth but the truth is that the little baby looks exactly like Singer, Nathaniel Bassey.
“Nothing anybody wan reason me oh, this child is Nathaniel Bassey’s baby, just maybe there was a secret away match that occurred; otherwise, how can we make empirical sense of this?
“The said post has sparked up unruly and demeaning reactions from several users online, leading to further defamatory comment by the second defendant who also commented on the post of the first defendant with the picture of Pastor Nathaniel Bassey, a pastor and gospel artiste, with the caption,’The real father of the baby.’
“Additionally, drawing from the first defendant’s post, the third defendant in quoting the defamatory statement of the first defendant with a screenshot of the same on twitter, (now known as “X”) posted: ‘When are we doing DNA test?’
“Correspondingly, the fourth defendant on the same X platform posted, ‘Take a look at the striking resemblance of Mercy Chinwo’s son and Nathaniel Bassey. Though duo has been working together on several projects in the past… what do you have to say?’
“For the records, Your Worship, the complainant is the father of the child and not Nathaniel Bassey as portrayed by the malicious posts of the Defendants.”
Recall that on Wednesday, 3 April, 2024 that Nathaniel Bassey, asked the Inspector-General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, to investigate and prosecute four individuals who he said falsely accused him of being the father of Mercy Chinwo’s child.
