Two journalists, Gidado Shuaib and Olufemi Alfred, have been convicted of criminal conspiracy and defamation by a magistrate court in Ilorin, Kwara State.
The journalists were fined a sum of N100,000 each or go for three-month imprisonment.
The Nigeria Police Force arraigned Gidado Shuaib and Olufemi Alfred in November 2019 for criminal conspiracy and defamation contrary to sections 97 and 392 of the penal law.
Trouble for the journalists started after a petition was written against them by Hillcrest Agro-Allied Industries Limited over a June 2018 published article in News Digest, with the headline: ‘Inside Kwara Factory where Indian hemp is legalised.’
The petitioner alleged that the said publication portrayed the company which is into rice production as a place where Indian hemp is being smoked freely by workers.
The international media Watchdog, Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), condemned the conviction of the two journalists, describing it as “a chilling message to the Nigerian press.”
CPJ’s Africa programme coordinator, Angela Quintal, opined that the journalists should not have been charged, let alone convicted, stressing the conviction underscores the urgent need for authorities to reform the country’s laws and ensure journalism was not criminalised.
