Trader bags nine months jail for false publication

A Surulere Magistrate Court has convicted and sentenced a 56-year-old spare parts dealer, Fredrick Mmegwa, to nine months imprisonment over false publication.

Chief Magistrate Phillip Ojo, who handed down the verdict on Friday, held that the prosecution successfully proved the cases of conspiracy, conduct likely to cause a breach of public peace, and false publication against the convict.

In his judgment, Magistrate Ojo held that the trader was guilty and therefore convicted and sentenced him to three months imprisonment each on the three counts preferred against him by the police.

Mmegwa, a trader at the United Allied Spare Parts Dealers Association section of the Trade Fair Complex, Badagry Expressway, was found guilty on all three counts after the conclusion of the trial in the case.

The convict was in 2017,  arraigned by the Force Criminal Investigation Department Annex, Alagbon-Ikoyi, Lagos, on charges numbered A/197/2017.

The police prosecution counsel, Morufu Animashaun, told the court that the convict and others still at large committed the offences on November 17, 2016.

According to the prosecutor, “The convict made a false publication in The Guardian newspaper, claiming that ‘you are the new executive officers of the United Allied Spare Parts Dealers Association’. This was completely untrue and caused serious disruption within the association.”

The prosecutor said that the offences committed contravened  Sections 409, 411(1), and 57(b) of the Lagos State Criminal Code Law of 2011.

During the trial, the prosecution called three witnesses, Mr. Simon Uzoegue, the nominal complainant, as well as Bartholomew Achukwu and Kabiru Salami, a retired Superintendent of Police who investigated the matter.

Six documentary exhibits were also tendered and admitted into evidence.

After the prosecution’s case, the convict chose to file a ‘No Case Submission’ instead of opening his defence. The prosecutor contested this submission vigorously.

However, Magistrate Ojo ruled against the ‘No Case Submission’, stating, “The evidence brought forward by the prosecution has sufficiently proven the charges. Therefore, the convict must face the consequences of his actions.”

Following the dismissal of his submission, the convict, dissatisfied, approached the Lagos State High Court to appeal the ruling, but his appeal was rejected.

Justice Ismail Ijelu, who presided over the appeal, dismissed it as lacking merit.

After his failed appeal, Mmegwa returned to the Magistrate’s Court to open his defence and called five witnesses. Both parties subsequently filed and adopted their written addresses.

Delivering judgment, Chief Magistrate Ojo stated, “The prosecution has successfully proven beyond reasonable doubt the charges of conspiracy, conduct likely to cause a breach of public peace, and false publication against the convict.”

Mmegwa’s lawyer, citing various legal precedents, pleaded for leniency, asking the court to show mercy during sentencing.

In his ruling, Magistrate Ojo sentenced Mmegwa to three months’ imprisonment for each count.

He, however, offered alternatives: “The convict shall perform two weeks of community service to count one and pay a fine of N90,000 for count three, as an alternative to the jail term.”