On September 17, Chioma Egodi Jnr., a popular Facebook user, posted a review of the Nagiko Tomato Mix, a product of Erisco Foods Ltd., on her page.

In the post, Egodi Jnr. asked her followers who had used the same product to share their opinions and experiences with her.

“I went to buy tin tomatoes yesterday that I will use to make stew. I didn’t see Gino and Sonia, so I decided to buy this one (Nagiko). When I opened it omo! I decided to taste it. Sugar is just too much. Haa biko (please) let me know if you have used this tin tomato before because this is an ike gwuru (tiring) situation,” Egodi’s post read.

Following the post, she would receive an invitation from the police. When the Facebook user honoured the invitation, she was arrested and transferred to the Force Headquarters in Abuja.

At the time of her arrest, Erisco Foods released an official statement claiming the Facebook user advised her followers to avoid the tomato paste because it was “not fit for human consumption”.

READ MORE: Police Arrest Facebook User Chioma Egodi Jnr for Review on Erisco Foods’ Tomato Paste

FIJ has now discovered that in filing its petition against Egodi, Erisco Foods told the office of the Inspector-General of Police that the Facebook user led a syndicate that attempted to extort money from it.

In an interview with Punch Newspaper, Nnamdi Nwokolo, spokesperson for Erisco Food, said the company wrote a petition to the police to investigate the claims.

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Nwokolo also told the newspaper that the company reacted to the publication by petitioning the police. This petition was dated September 19, 2023, two days after her post.

Nwokolo said, “The allegations were grave, so we petitioned the police to investigate the matter. So, if the police find criminal defamation against Chioma Egodi and then arrest her, is it a crime that we sought the law?”

When FIJ compared the statement Erisco Food issued with its petition to the police, a few similarities and dissimilarities were noticed.

While the company maintained in both its statement and petition that Egodi was the head of a syndicate that was jealous of its standing as a “leading indigenous manufacturer of tomato pastes”, it also claimed in its petition that she was trying to extort money from them.

The petition was titled ‘Complaint of criminal conspiracy, the marketing and blackmail of killing people with our product against an organised syndicate faking our products after failing to extort money from us and cyberbullying’.

Part of the statement read, “These people and their cohorts have tried severally in the past to extort money from us under various guise[sic], but on every occasion, we always referred them to NAFDAC and Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) as we have certifications from the two regulatory agencies of government.”

The company has come under fire since it took action against Egodi for expressing her opinion on social media; many netizens are calling for a boycott of its products.