12th March, 2024
By Fikayo Babalola
A coalition of protesters from different civil society organisations on Tuesday. morning stormed the office of Erisco Foods Limited at 2, Oyeleke Street,off Kudirat Abiola Way, to express their displeasure with what they saw as the continued persecution of Chioma Okoli who gave a negative review of one of the company’s products.
Last year, Okoli who said she bought the Nagiko tomato mix produced by Erisco on 16 September, 2023, wrote on Facebook: “When I opened it, I decided to taste it, Omo! Sugar is just too much!” She also asked other Facebook users to confirm if they had used the product before.
But her review did not go down well with the company who complained to the police that Okoli deliberately misled its customers and was involved in a malicious smear campaign. The reviewer was arrested by the police and later released.
Ersico thereafter instituted a N5bn libel suit instituted against her. The police also say their investigations show that Okoli breached certain provisions of Cybercrime (Prohibition, Prevention, etc) Act, 2015.
But the protesters would have none of those as they called for an end to the persecutions of Okoli. Wielding placards bearing inscriptions such as : ‘Enough is brought Erisco foods’, ‘ Free speech is guaranteed by the Constitution’ and ‘We will not be silenced’, said Okoli did nothing bad.
One of them, Pat Faniran said “People should see feedback as a gift. it’s a customer review and to let you improve on your product and why’s is that a problem? What did Chioma do ? What’s wrong with feedback?”