Two journalists, Gidado Shuaib and Alfred Olufemi, sentenced for libel have made known their intention to appeal the judgment.
Hillcrest Agro-Allied Industries Limited, a rice milling company in Kwara State had in a report published by News Digest said to encourage hemp smoking by its workers to which the online news medium’s publishers, Shuaib and Alfred were taken to court for defamation and found guilty as charged.
An Ilorin magistrate’s court had on 7 February sentenced the duo to two- month imprisonment, with N100,000 fine per person in option unconvinced by the defence witness, Adepoju Adedotun, a former worker at Hillcrest that he was sacked for his inability to partake in the smoking fray.
The use of hemp, Adepoju had testified was mandatory in order that workers would be able to face the toils of rice milling.
The latest report; Shuaib(pictured up) and Alfred would challenge their conviction, as per Premium Times, citing their lawyer, Ibraheem Gambari.
“We strongly believe that justice will be achieved at appeal so that patriotic youthful elements in the society like our clients will not be discouraged from embarking on their respective altruistic endeavours,” Gambari told the publication.
