Legal counsel to singer Simi has disclosed that she and her team reviewed more than 5,000 tweets trolling and harassing her client.
The lawyer and entertainment business executive, Oyinkansola Fawehinmi, popularly known as Foza, made the disclosure while appearing as a guest on the JayOnairLive show.
She condemned the prolonged harassment and bullying allegedly directed at Simi and her husband Adekunle Gold, questioning why such coordinated attacks were targeted at the singer while she was pregnant.
“We went through over 5,000 tweets of sustained harassment. And the intention was to ensure that Simi becomes a shadow of herself,” she said.
“And mind you, I’m dealing with someone here that has a baby on the way. I’m not going to sit down and let you do that to my clients. Nobody, even you, if you had a wife that’s about to give birth, you’re not going to allow that to happen,” she said while speaking with the host of the show.
Foza also explained the difference between defamation and harassment, arguing that repeated and coordinated online attacks, including threats to personal safety, go beyond defamatory statements and amount to criminal harassment.
“So now defamation is, I come out and say, hey, Jay did X and X and X on this thing. Defamation, most of the time, is like one or two statements that you make, you know. And for me, it’s like, hey, you have to prove that statement. Harassment is a sustained period of conversation.
“But people need to understand that these are not just mere statements. They have real-life implications, especially for celebrities. When things like this break out, the first thing is all the brands you’re working with start calling you. You start having to explain yourself,” she said.
Foza also expressed concern over cyberbullying and online harassment in Nigeria’s entertainment industry, particularly on X and other social media platforms.
According to her, the anonymity of social media users and the financial incentives tied to engagement often encourage harmful behaviour from trolls and online bullies.
Her comments come days after a Federal High Court in Lagos sentenced X user Samuel Adeboye Adeyeye to two years imprisonment after he pleaded guilty to cyberbullying, cyber threats and cyber harassment involving Adekunle Gold and Simi’s family.
Adeyeye, known on X as @Swanky001, had falsely posted that the couple’s daughter, Deja, was dead. Reports said he ignored warnings from other users to delete the post as engagement on it continued to grow.
The court ordered the sentences to run concurrently and also restrained him from engaging in further harmful conduct against the singers and their family.
The case has since sparked conversations online about cyberbullying, misinformation and the legal consequences of harmful social media content in Nigeria.
