The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has sentenced a Nigerian woman identified as @dunchichi on Twitter to a one-year jail term over a Twitter post.
The woman on August 31 tweeted how she was detained together with other Nigerians despite possessing a valid visa.
“I’m at Dubai International Airport and myself and some tiger Nigerians with valid Visas are being held in a room hours after arriving with no explain and no information on what we can do. Please help me. There’s more than 20 of us,” she wrote.
The Nigerian was sentenced on October 12, according to another tweep who claimed to her relative @jerrydoubles.
The so-called relative wrote, “It is sad and regrettably heartrending to tell you all that @dunchichi was sentenced on 12th Oct 22, to 1yr in jail in Dubai. Her family are devastated and Nigeria didn’t save her.
“Her sentence came from the backdrop that she got a family visa to travel. But in fact, she was there with her sister. It got messy & complicated, she was released on arrival after being detained for several hours, only to be sentenced when she was returning to Nigeria.
“They are capitalising on the fact that she made a video then posted them on her Twitter timeline to narrate the ordeal. They said it’s cybercrime in their country. She went ahead to delete it. Still, that didn’t soften them. Now she is jailed #justicefordinci.”
The tweep added that the victim’s family plans to protest her conviction at the Dubai consulate office in Abuja.
Reacting to the incident, spokesman of the police in Lagos Benjamin Hundeyin tweeted on Sunday morning, “Jailed over a twitter post. I urge everyone to download and digest the CYBERCRIMES (PROHIBITION, PREVENTION, ETC) ACT, 2015. Endeavor to know the consequences of certain actions. Ignorance is not an excuse!”
UAE authorities last Friday announced a visa ban on Nigerians, adding that all submitted applications are rejected and fees non-refundable.
