Defamation: Atlast! Afe Babalola breaks silence on Dele Farotimi’s detention

Renowned Senior Advocate of Nigeria and founder of Afe Babalola University, Aare Afe Babalola, has opened up on the detention of human rights lawyer, Dele Farotimi’s detention.

While revealing the circumstances leading to the arrest of the lawyer, Babalola said that Farotimi defamed him in a recently published book.

The accusation stems from a Supreme Court judgment involving a land dispute that spanned over two decades.

In a petition dated November 19 and addressed to the Ekiti State Commissioner of Police, Adeniran Akinwale, Babalola detailed how his law firm discovered defamatory contents in Farotimi’s book, Nigeria and its Criminal Justice System.

He said that the book contained several defamatory statements that questioned his integrity and accused his law firm of unethical practices, including corrupting the judiciary.

He added that the book accused him of “corrupting the Supreme Court from ages past and had led it to commit the most egregious acts of evil and wanting injustice.”

The petition reads, “I write to report the criminal defamation of myself, my law firm Afe Babalola & Co and my lawyers in person of Olu Daramola SAN and Ola Faro by one Dele Farotimi in his book titled ‘NIGERIA AND ITS CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM’ published by Dele Farotimi publishers in respect of Suit no: SC/146/2005: Major Muritala Gbadamosi Eletu & Ors V. H.R.H Oba Tijani Akinloye & Ors.

“Sometime on 2/11/2024, one of our lawyers while travelling through Murtala Muhammed Airport bought a book by Dele Farotimi titled ‘NIGERIA AND ITS CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM’ published by Dele Farotimi publishers. He read the said book and immediately brought it to my attention. Many of my lawyers also bought the said book and read same.”

“The said defamatory statements are detailed below:

“That Aare Afe Babalola corrupted the Supreme Court to procure a fraudulent judgement in the service of his client.

“That Aare Afe Babalola, Olu Daramola, Olu Faro and the law offices of Afe Babalola & Co, (Emmanuel Chambers) compromised the Supreme Court and the remaining semblance of integrity it might have had when they went back to the Supreme Court and got the Court to swim in the sewer of corruption and shameful self-Abnegation.”