REVENGE PARTY GONE WRONG

By now, if you haven’t heard of the 53-year-old lecturer of the Federal University of Lafia, Nasarawa State, in the person of Dr. Fred Ekpa-Ayokhai, who along with members of his immediate family dehumanized a friend of his daughter, then you are one of the wonderful Nigerians that know how to stay away from social media and its troubles.

Well, the story is quite messy, but let’s try. Two young ladies by name Miss Blessing Mathias and Miss Emmanuella Ayokhai had certain issues over a young man. This issue led Miss Blessing Mathias to get some of her friends to teach Miss Emmanuella a lesson she was not to forget. There are video clips to show the physical assault that Emmanuella was subjected to by Blessing and her friends right inside a room that seemed to be a hostel.

Aggrieved Emmanuella decided to get daddy involved in her problem. Daddy, being Dr. Fred Ekpa-Ayokhai and a lecturer of the Federal University of Lafia, the school young Miss Blessing Mathias attends. The simple truth is that daddy could have reported the case to the Nigerian Police. It was a case of assault and I assure you with the right witnesses and evidence, Blessing Mathias would probably be in police custody by now.

However, that was not the case. What we saw was a case of daddy and other family members taking the law into their hands. A case of pure vengeance. Dr. Fred and his family decided to pay Blessing a visit. This is where the whole trouble starts. They picked up Blessing from her abode (what looked like a hostel room) in a vehicle to an unknown location, a bush to be precise, beat her up, and used a pair of scissors to strip her naked, while video recording the whole incident.  

This one incident has led to three distinct criminal offences. The first being “Kidnap”, the second “Violence against person” and third being “Cyberbullying”. (I really don’t know what the third is called)

Now “Kidnapping” is the act of forcefully and unlawfully removing or abducting a person from a place to another against the person’s will, either by force, or use of offensive weapon or deception. It also includes holding the person hostage with or without the person’s consent with the intent to demand ransom, or for ritual killings or for any other unlawful purpose.

Obviously, Blessing Mathias didn’t follow Dr. Ekpa-Ayokhai and his family to the unknown destination of her own accord, she was definitely threatened and forced into the vehicle.

“Violence against persons” can be in form of assault, inflicting physical injury on a person using any weapon or object (same act that Blessing had carried against Emmanuella), grievous assault to cause bodily harm, torture and the likes. From the clip I saw, Miss Blessing had initially inflicted physical injury on Miss Emmanuella, before the vengeance plan.

The one of interest to me is “Cyberbullying”. It is an act of using digital devices to share, post or send negative, harmful or mean content about somebody else. It includes recording and sending pornographic images to another by way of any digital device with intent to embarrass the person. The video which surfaced online was obviously recorded by one of Emmanuel’s family members, and a part of it shows a part where the lecturer had taken a pair of scissors to cut Blessing’s top, exposing her breast, despite her plea. Just so you know, Section 23(2) of the Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention etc) Act, 2015 states that

“Any person who knowingly makes or sends other pornographic images to another computer by way of unsolicited distribution shall be guilty of an offence and upon conviction shall be sentenced to one-year imprisonment or a fine of Two Hundred and Fifty Thousand Naira or both”

Although I do not think the punishment is enough for such grievous crime, but that is the law for now. This is of interest to me, because it is becoming rampant, people filming and recording other people’s nudity and putting it on social media. Another set of people seeing it and then reposting it on their timelines. It is criminal for goodness sake, and you are playing with fire. So, when next you are planning a revenge party, get that act off your mind. And for those that share after viewing, you might want to think again.

On to other matters. When the incident came online, I knew arrest would be made, and definitely the culprits would be taken to court. It was the only natural thing to happen. On Wednesday, the 26^th day of October, 2022, men of the Nigeria Police Force, Lafia, did the needful and arrested the lecturer and three of his children that were involved in the act, including Miss Emmanuella. The only issue I have is that the offence charges brought against the four persons did not include the offence of cybercrime. However, they were charged with kidnapping, house breaking, criminal assault to women with intent to outrage modesty, inflicting physical injury on another.

Some of my colleagues believe that the above charge is enough, especially since kidnapping which is a felony is there. Section 4 of the Nasarawa State Anti-Kidnapping (Prohibition) Law, 2019, under which they were charged stipulates 20 years imprisonment for conspiracy to kidnap. Just so you know, conspiracy to commit a crime means “hatching a plan with another person to commit the crime”, you do not have to succeed in committing the crime yet before you can be guilty of it. Just evidence of you and another person making such plans to commit that crime, makes you guilty of conspiracy.

If found guilty by the Court, one-year imprisonment is nothing compared to 20 years imprisonment for conspiracy to kidnap. Peradventure they are not found guilty of kidnap, but found guilty of violence against person by way of inflicting physical injury, they would be liable to imprisonment for a term of five years or a fine of One Hundred Thousand Naira, or both. One way or the other, the exclusion of the cybercrime is not of utmost importance anymore. However, you should take note of that offence, so you don’t find yourself engulfed in it.  

Note: Only if Emmanuella had reported the matter to the police first, it would have been Blessing facing the charge of violence against persons.