- After Bail Denial, Activist Slammed With Fresh N500m Defamation Suit
- Babalola’s Partner Seeks Stop To Further Publishing, Selling Of Controversial Book
- Atiku Says Farotimi’s Detention Act Of Impunity, Rights Violation
- Ahead Of Planned Protest, Babalola’s Lagos Firm Under Police Watch
The plight of Dele Farotimi, activist and lawyer seems to be worsening if recent developments are anything to go by.
Earlier, a chief magistrates court in Ado-Ekiti adjourned his bail ruling to December 20.
The magistrate, Abayomi Adeosun, reserved ruling till December 20 on the bail application and ordered that the activist be remanded in prison.
During the court proceedings, Farotimi pleaded not guilty to the 14-count charge preferred against him by the police.
Farotimi’s counsel, Adeyinka Olumide-Fusika, had filed a preliminary objection asking the court to strike out the charge.
He noted that the charge before the court was unknown to law and the offence of defamation was not recognised under the Criminal Law of Ekiti State, 2021.
Farotimi is being prosecuted before a chief magistrate’s court in Ado Ekiti, Ekiti State for allegedly defaming a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Afe Babalola.
Shortly after the ruling, Kehinde Ogunwumiju, a Senior Advocate Of Nigeria, SAN, and Managing Partner of Afe Babalola & Co. has taken fresh legal action against the embattled lawyer.
In a lawsuit filed on December 6th, Ogunwumiju is seeking a court order to halt the publication and sale of the book in physical and online bookstores. He is also requesting N500 million in damages.
The lawsuit states: “An order of interlocutory injunction restraining the defendant/respondent, whether acting by himself, his staff, employees, servants, privies, representatives, agents, publishers, distributors, sellers, re-publishers, re-sellers, or any other person howsoever described including Amazon Online Bookstore, Rovingheights Bookstore, Booksellers Bookstore, Jazzhole Lagos Bookstore, Glendora Bookshop, Quintessence Lagos Bookstore and Patabah Books Limited from further publishing, selling, circulating, advertising, or distributing the physical/hard/digital/soft copies of the book authored by the defendant/respondent titled: ‘Nigeria and Its Criminal Justice System’, online, electronically, physically or by any other means including social media, pending the hearing and determination of the substantive suit.”
READ ALSO: Amid Farotimi’s Defamation Saga, Peter Obi Visits Afe Babalola
Ogunwumiju also requested the court to order the seizure of all copies of the book and for Farotimi to issue a public apology in two national newspapers.
Meanwhile, former vice president Atiku Abubakar has declared that the arrest and detention of Farotimi amounted to impunity and violation of his rights.
Abubakar, the 2023 presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), decried the detention of the human rights lawyer and advocate saying he is languishing in prison for speaking truth to power.
In a post on X to commemorate the International Human Rights Day, Abubakar said the lawyer’s arrest is a glaring example of the pervasive climate of impunity and rights violations in the country.
“Dele Farotimi now languishes in prison custody not for any crime but for the supposed ‘crime’ of persistently speaking truth to power,” the statement read.
“His only offense lies in his unflinching commitment to exposing the truths that the government and its collaborators would rather remain hidden,” Atiku stated.
He faulted the circumstances surrounding Farotimi’s incarceration, stressing that Farotimi is being prosecuted under a cyberbullying law that does not exist in Ekiti State.
In a related development, stern looking police officers are keeping watch over the Afe Babalola Chambers in the Magodo area of Lagos.
The operatives are on the premises to keep protesters at bay, amid a planned demonstration over the prosecution of Dele Farotimi, the human rights activist.
READ ALSO: Afe Babalola Accuses Dele Farotimi Of Defamation In Recent Book
The chambers is one of the venues pencilled for the commencement of a protest by the ‘Take it Back Movement’ — a group led by Omoyele Sowore, publisher of Sahara Reporters.
On December 5, Sowore asked Nigerians to join a “nationwide/global protest” against the judiciary over Farotimi’s prosecution.
Farotimi is facing legal action over alleged false and defamatory statements made in his book, “Nigeria and Its Criminal Justice System.”
