Famed gospel musician Nathaniel Bassey has petitioned the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Kayode Egbetokun, to investigate and arrest four social media users for accusing him of fathering colleague Mercy Chinwo’s son.
According to the petition filed by his lawyers, Peter Abraham, Uche Matthew, Gbenga Agunloye, and Anthony Abia, the four suspects, Okoronkwo Ejike, Kingsley Ibeh, Terrence Ekot, and DJ Spoiltkid, alleged that Nathaniel Bassey was the biological father of Mercy’s six-month-old son.
They made the allegations on their social media accounts when Mercy and her husband, Blessed Uzochikwa, unveiled their son’s identity on social media on March 29.
Mr. Ejike’s post read: “This is Mercy Chinwo’s child; she was hiding after giving birth, but the truth is that this baby looks exactly like singer Nathaniel Bassey. Nobody wants to reason with me, oh. This child is Nathaniel Bassey’s baby. Maybe a secret away match occurred; otherwise, how can we make an empirical sense of this?”
The petition submitted to the IGP on April 1 read in parts: “On Friday, the 29th day of March 2024, Mercy Chinwo blessed another popular gospel music minister, and her husband posted pictures of their son and themselves on different social media platforms.”
“However, our client was disheartened, saddened, and grossly disturbed to find that the suspects mentioned above, as mischief makers with a criminal intent to destroy the image and character of our client, had made different social media posts of defamatory matter, calling our client ‘the father of minister Mercy Chinwo Blessed’s son,’ a woman who is married to another man.”
The lawyers stated that the social media posts by the four individuals constituted a thorough character assassination of Bassey, which violated Sections 373 and 375 of the Criminal Code Act as well as Section 24(1)(b) of the Cybercrimes Act (Prohibition, Prevention, etc.).
“The post by Mr. Okoronkwo Ejike has since gone viral on the platform. In reaction to the post, Mr. Kingsley Ibeh commented on Mr. Okoronkwo’s post with a picture of our client with the caption “The real father of the baby.”
“In a post on the platform “X,” formerly known as Twitter, ‘Dj SpoiltKid’, a verified X user, quoted the statement by Okoronkwo Ejike along with a screenshot of the post and added, “When are we doing DNA testing?”
“In another post, Mr. Terrence Ekot, on the platform “X,” made a post thus: “Take a look at the stunning resemblance of Mercy Chinwo’s son and Nathaniel Bassey. Though the duo has been working together on several projects, what do you have to say?” (sic).
The lawyers called on the IGP to immediately deal with the suspects, as their nefarious acts could continue to destroy Bassey’s image, injure his reputation, assassinate his character, and cast aspersion on the good name built by him over the years.
They also believed that the act rendered marriages unstable, and many never recovered from them, hence their plea.
“We believe that the post was released maliciously with the intent to criminally defame our client and cause injurious damage to his person,” the statement added.
The lawyers further stated that the team had initiated legal action against the creators and disseminators of the posts, as well as individuals who have made other irresponsible statements and videos on the matter.
Source: Ghana/MaxTV/MaxFM/max.com.gh/Joyceline Natally Cudjoe
