Zika Bobby
Former acting Chief Press Secretary to Edo State governor Godwin Obaseki, John Mayaki has petitioned the Inspector General of Police over alleged threats of assassination he received from one Mr Eben Enasco Kingsley. The petition was dated June 13, 2019.
The threat to life came in an article published and circulated online by Kingsley where he was alleged to have made libellous claims against Mayaki, that some persons have commenced a man-hunt for him with the intention of causing him harm.
The petition stated that the threat and planned manhunt is connected to the activities of Mayaki’s online blog, which called to question the actions of the Edo State government including opaque contract award, abuse of office amongst other infractions.
“Kingsley’s comments which inadvertently revealed the plans of the government in continuation of its desperation to silence the opposition, violated Section 24(1) (b) of the Cybercrime (Prohibition Prevention etc) Act, 2015 which stipulates as follows regarding the offence of cyber stalking:
“A person who knowingly or intentionally sends a message or other matter    by means of computer systems or network  that he knows to be false, for    the purpose of causing annoyance, inconvenience, danger, obstruction,    insult, injury, criminal intimidation, enmity, hatred, ill will or needless anxiety to another or causes such a message to be sent commits an offence    under this Act and is liable on conviction to a fine of not more than    N7,000,000.00 or imprisonment for a term of not more than 3 years or both,” the petition reads in parts.
According to the petition, Mayaki said his father have received multiple threat calls on the matter too.
But in a chat with Kingsley yesterday, he said at no point did he threaten the life of the former CPS, stressing that there was no where in the said article where Mayaki’s life was threatened. “I am a journalist like him, if he has petitioned the IG of threat to his life, I will definitely respond. I don’t know anything about threat to his life. I never threatened his life in the said article. The article was in response to his attacks on Governor Obaseki and as a journalist as well I took up the matter in the Governor’s defence. If he has petitioned the IG over that, I am waiting to be invited. I have not and did not make any statement threatening his life,” Kingsley said.