A lot of Nigerians do not know the difference between civil wrong and criminal offence. 

I can say that 90 percent of Nigerians cannot tell the difference between civil wrongs and criminal offences. 

This may be the reason that once you feel someone has wronged you, then boom, you taste blood. Call the Police, call the Department of State Services, call the Army, have him arrested and thrown into jail or detention. In fact, despite changing the name prison to correctional center, most Nigerians think a holding facility is for vengeance by suffering the person instead of correction.

It is no longer news that some Internet users have posted online, X platform that Nathaniel Bassey is the father of Mercy Chinwo’s child. This was considered offensive or wrong leading to a Petition to the Inspector General of Police by Nathaniel Bassey that these online users be fished out, arrested and prosecuted for criminal defamation. It is like using a wrong to correct a wrong.

Civil wrongs like defamation of character are in a category of wrongs like owing money or not paying your debt. It is not a police case. It should lead to civil action for defamation of character by the person aggrieved. The end result for civil action is to seek relief for damages in monetary terms. It does not lead to criminal prosecution, conviction and prison terms. However, Nigerians in power or the rich and influential seem not to care about these differences between civil wrong and criminal offence. Once, you wrong them, then they will let loose the police or state security forces on you as a way of “teaching you a lesson.” That’s pure oppression or abuse of state forces. There are over 100 Court Judgments condemning this practice. See the Supreme Court cases of Kure vs COP, Nwoboshi vs FRN for instance.

I am not saying that people should be allowed to make careless comments online and go scot free. Rather, the appropriate legal action should be taken. In this case, it should be a civil suit. The duty of the police does not extend to the protection of your reputation. Your reputation is personal to you. Any injury to your reputation is a personal civil wrong committed against you and should lead to personal action and not Police investigation and prosecution. If we assume for a moment that there is any crime in it, why not report to the police division in charge? The office of Inspector General of Police is not in the ordinary course of business, made for receiving complaints about minor criminal offences involving two fighting. It is for serious business supervising police operations all over the country.

Unfortunately, once it is a big man that writes the petition to the police, they will jump on it and start harassing weaker people. They will hardly tell the rich no, this is a civil case and it is outside our jurisdiction. This is how the Police yields itself to abuse of state power. 

Interestingly, even in terms of the substance of the alleged criminal defamation, it is not a criminal offence in Lagos where the complaint is originating from. The best you can make of the post is to say that:

1. Nathaniel Bassey is fertile and has fathered a child or

2. Nathaniel Bassey has committed adultery.

Both are not criminal offences in Lagos. Fathering a child is no offence in Lagos. Adultery is equally not a criminal offence. The Supreme Court of Nigeria has laid this to rest in the case of Aoko v. Fagbeyemi (1961) 1 ALL NLR 400 that adultery is not a criminal offence.

You can take civil action on allegations of adultery but not a criminal case. 

I hope you find this useful.