The Wuse Zone 2 Chief Magistrate Court on Wednesday summoned five netizens to appear before the court and plead their defence in an allegation of criminal defamation and cyberstalking brought by gospel singer, Mercy Chinwo and her husband, Blessed Uzochikwa.

The couple had filed a complaint that Okoronkwo Ejike, Kingsley Ibeh, DJ Spoiltkid, Terrence Ekot, and Samuel Agozie defamed them by alleging that their newborn bore a striking resemblance to the singer’s colleague, Nathaniel Bassey.

Based on the complaints, the five netizens were ordered to appear in court on April 23 to make their defence, according to documents obtained by Channels TV.

Last Friday, Ms Chinwo unveiled her baby on Instagram but some netizens made snide remarks that Mr Uzochikwa should conduct a DNA test to verify if he was truly the baby’s father.

The couple said the comments which went viral “criminally injured” their reputation and image “across the globe resulting from their intentional defamatory posts and an(sic)act of cyberstalking.” 

In a similar yet separate case, Mr Bassey petitioned the police IG on Wednesday to urgently arrest and investigate four online users who accused him of fathering Ms Chinwo’s child.

Mr Bassey’s team of lawyers led by Peter Abraham called on the police chief to quickly investigate the allegations as leaving the matter unaddressed could have far-reaching implications on his marriage, reputation and ministry both locally and on the international scene.

“The consequences of making such statements on social media have been known to tarnish the reputations of individuals, render marriages unstable, and many never recover from them,” the petition dated April 3, stated.

Mr Ejike, named a defendant in the matter, last Friday wrote on Facebook that “this is the true face of Mercy Chinwo’s child she was hiding after giving birth but the truth is that this little baby looks exactly like singer Nathaniel Bassey.”

“Nothing anybody wan reason me on, this child is Nathaniel Bassey’s Baby, just maybe there was a secret away match that occurred otherwise how can we make empirical sense of this,” he added in the Facebook post.