In a recent court ruling, a former lecturer in the Department of Chemistry at the Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Peter Ekemezie, has been sentenced to six months imprisonment for making defamatory comments on Facebook.

The court found Ekemezie guilty of publishing statements that were deemed defamatory and damaging to the reputation of Prof. Alex Asigbo.

Ekemezie was charged with three-counts of forgery and defamation, but was given an option of N300,000 fine.

The judgement which was handed down in an Awka Magistrates’ court, on Tuesday by His Worship, E.C. Chukwu, stated that Ekemezie was put into consideration because he had already spent one month in a psychiatric facility and four months in a Correctional Centre.

Asigbo told the court, during trial that the accused had forged his signature when he refused to give him (Ekemezie) a witness statement but had advised him to get a subpoena instead.

However, this angered Ekemezie who then decided to write and publish series of defamatory statements against the plaintiff on Facebook and other social media platforms.

While confirming Ekemezie as a former lecturer in the institution, the media adviser to the vice chancellor of the institution, Emmanuel Ojukwu said:

“He left the services of UNIZIK several years ago due to inadequacies in degrees, there were several loopholes in his credentials and his matter was treated before the Council and he was sent away. Before then, he was at the Department of Chemistry.”