By Nwachukwu Egbunike

A group of students and alumni linked to the privately-owned Madonna University in the Niger Delta, Nigeria, risk up to seven years in jail over social media posts denouncing poor conditions and mistreatment of students and staff at the university.

The group, known as the #Madonna7, includes four students;  Benedict Amaechi, Badaziri Owhonda, Chijoke Nnamani and Nwokeoma Blackson; and former staff members Anthony Ezeimo and Jonathan Abuno, also university alumni. A seventh man in the group, Nnamdi Opara, a friend of Ezeimo, is also named in the case.

On March 28, 2019, the group was arraigned before the court under section 27(1) (b) of the Nigerian cybercrime law of 2015 [Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention, etc.) Act, 2015] for offenses allegedly committed between January 1 and December 31, 2018. Police brought the charges against the group following a complaint submitted by the university.

Vivien Douglas, a communications consultant acting on behalf of the Madonna 7, shared the charge sheet (FHC/FHC/C/03/2019) with Global Voices via email. The group is accused of sending “false messages” through social media which caused “annoyance, inconvenience, danger, insult, injury, criminal intimidation…” to Madonna University and its chief security officer, Titu Ugwu.

On July 3, a Federal High Court in Awka, the capital city of Anambra State in southeast Nigeria, granted the men release on bail. Although the application for bail for the group was filled and heard on February 19, they remained in prison for five months.

Chinedu Igwe, the head of the legal team for the accused, stated that the court was supposed to grant them bail in March but the court clerk could not perform an address verification of the sureties, which stalled their release.

The case was adjourned to October 7, 2019.

A Catholic university above criticism?

Madonna University is a private Catholic University that runs three campuses in Nigeria. The Madonna 7 allegedly committed their cybercrimes on the Okija campus located in the Anambra State, southeast Nigeria. The university has two other campuses located in the city of Elele, River State (southern Nigeria) and Akpugo in Enugu State (southeast Nigeria).

Rev. Fr. Emmanuel Edeh founded Madonna University in 1999 and also founded another university and a polytechnic. Edeh is the second richest Nigerian pastor with charities and investments estimated to be within 80 and 100 million United States dollars.

Online, Edeh and his university faced backlash for not tolerating criticism from students and staff:

Madonna University is still a glorified secondary School.
You will never see a graduate of Madonna University talk good about his or her alma mata. Sad.
In case you don’t know, the institution locked 6 students and a lecturer up since February for their opinion on Facebook.