Barely a week after a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN, Chief Afe Babalola, withdrew his cases against lawyer and rights activist, Mr Dele Farotimi, there is unease among Nigerians over the status of other pending lawsuits against the activist.
Their concerns are borne out of the fact that the police, having arrested and charged Farotimi with 12-count of cybercrime offences and 16-count of criminal defamation based on Babalola’s petition, there are other lawyers who instituted legal actions against the activist, claiming over N1 billion in damages.
On December 6, 2024, a SAN, Mr Kehinde Ogunwumiju, sued Farotimi for alleged defamatory statements in his book: ‘Nigeria and its Criminal Justice System.’
The Managing Partner at Afe Babalola & Co asked for N500 million in damages, while further appealing to the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, High Court in Abuja to halt the book’s publication and sale in physical and online bookstores.
Ogunwumiju, who pleaded with the court for an order for the seizure of the copies of the book wherever they might be found, stressed that Farotimi must apologise to him in two national newspapers.
Less than five days after Ogunwumiju’s suit, specifically on December 11, 2024, another lawyer from Babalola’s law firm, Mr Ola Faro, petitioned the Rivers State High Court in Port Harcourt, alleging that the rights activist also defamed him in the aforesaid book.
Validating his claim, Faro identified specific statements in the book which allege that he, Babalola and his law firm, Afe Babalola & Co, compromised the integrity of the Supreme Court. According to Faro, the statements are not factual and are deliberately written to tarnish his reputation.
While Faro also sought N500 million in damages against Farotimi for unlawful defamation, he requested N100 million in damages for distributing the book.
Meanwhile, following the intervention of the Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi, and some other traditional rulers in the feud between Babalola and Farotimi, the police prosecutor, Samson Osobu, last Wednesday, applied for the withdrawal of the cybercrime charges at the resumed hearing of the case at the Federal High Court, Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State.
For the other criminal charge filed by the police against Farotimi before a chief magistrate’s court in Ado-Ekiti, Sunday Vanguard gathered that the case scheduled for February 13 has not been withdrawn as of the time of filing this report.
On December 3, 2024, reports emerged that Farotimi had been arrested in Lagos by the police.
Confirming his arrest, the Police Public Relations Officer, PPRO, Ekiti State Police Command, DSP Abutu Sunday, said: “The command wishes to inform members of the public that one Mr Dele Farotimi is currently undergoing investigation following a petition written against him to the Office of the Commissioner of Police, Ekiti State Command, for an allegation of defamation of character and cyberbullying. He was arrested today in Lagos with a warrant after all means deployed by the command to bring him for interrogation proved abortive.”
(Vanguard)