On October 14, prosecutors modified the criminal accusations against Olurotimi Olawale, Roland Olonishuwa, Precious Eze Chukwunonso, and Seun Odunlami, four journalists.

The CEO of Guarantee Trust Bank is being linked to fraud allegations in a story that has four Nigerian journalists in custody. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has strongly denounced this imprisonment.

On October 14, prosecutors modified the criminal accusations against Olurotimi Olawale, Roland Olonishuwa, Precious Eze Chukwunonso, and Seun Odunlami, four journalists.

“Nigerian authorities should release journalists Olurotimi Olawale, Precious Eze Chukwunonso, Roland Olonishuwa, and Seun Odunlami, and end the deepening criminalisation of the press,” stated Angela Quintal, the head of CPJ’s Africa Program, who is based in New York.

“The additional charges that Nigerian authorities have brought against these four journalists underscores their commitment to sending a chilling message to journalists throughout the nation,” Quintal continued.

According to the October 14 charge sheet, Olawale, an editor of the privately held National Monitor newspaper, Chukwunonso, the publisher of the privately held News Platform website, Olonishuwa, a reporter for the privately held Herald newspaper, and Odunlami, the publisher of the privately held Newsjaunts website, were recently accused of spreading “false and misleading allegations” on social media with the intention of “extorting” and “threaten[ing]” the management of Guarantee Trust Bank and causing “harm” to the bank’s reputation.

Sections 408, 422, and 507 of Nigeria’s criminal code, as well as sections 24(2)(c) and 27(1)(a) and (b) of the country’s Cybercrimes Act, apply to the accused offences.

The journalists may spend up to 14 years in jail if found guilty of breaking section 408, seven years for violating section 422, and three months for violating section 507 of the penal code.

The journalists could have served seven years in prison for breaking section 27 of the Cybercrimes Act and five years in prison with a fine of fifteen million naira (US$9,175) for violating section 24.

Remember that the journalists were imprisoned since late September due to their reporting that suggested GTBank CEO Segun Agbaje was involved in a fraud scheme involving a purported 1 trillion naira (US$600 million).

As CPJ warned, the Cybercrimes Act, which was amended in February, nonetheless left journalists open to prosecution. The journalists were accused of breaking the law on September 26.

Before the charges were changed, Oyinade Adegite, the chief communications officer of GTBank, told CPJ that the journalists’ reporting was “defamatory” and that the bank had attempted to prosecute the journalists with cybercrime as a result.