I Still Face Four Lawsuits From Afe Babalola’s Firm – Farotimi
Activist and lawyer, Dele Farotimi, on Sunday, disclosed that he was still faced with four separate suits in different states filed by members of the Aare Afe Babalola law office. Farotimi disclosed this while speaking during the Toyin Falola Interviews on Sunday. Farotimi’s disclosure comes after the Founder of Afe Babalola University, Ado Ekiti, Aare Afe Babalola (SAN), on January 27, agreed to withdraw the cases instituted against Farotimi. Following Afe Babalola’s petition to the police commissioner in Ekiti State that Farotimi defamed him in a book titled ‘Nigeria and its Criminal Justice System,’ the police arrested the activist lawyer and arraigned him before two courts in Ekiti. Consequently, Farotimi stood trial for alleged criminal defamation before an Ekiti State Magistrate Court, Ado Ekiti District and as well for alleged cyber-bullying before the Ado Ekiti Division of Federal High Court. Babalola had announced his withdrawal of the case against Farotimi citing the intervention of the Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi, and other top traditional rulers. But featuring on Sunday’s conversation, with the theme: “Politics, Law and Society,” Farotimi disclosed that while the police had withdrawn criminal charges against him following Babalola’s petition withdrawal, he still faced four civil suits across different states, all filed by members of Babalola’s law office. “My inability to speak to certain aspects of this issue is borne out of the fact that, despite the discontinuation of the criminal proceeding, I still have four suits that I am aware of, in four different states of the federation, filed by members of the same law office, against my person,” he revealed. Farotimi emphasised that his book was not written in a moment of idle talk or baseless accusations but rather a well-researched work documenting his experiences and observations about the Nigerian judicial system. “I did not sit down in a beer parlour; I was not at an officers’ mess; I was not gossiping. It was not idle, cheap talk. I wrote a book,” he declared. “Let us deal with veracity. Anybody can go and read and then come back and challenge me with the lie that I have told.” Dismissing claims that the controversy surrounding his book is a personal battle, Farotimi insisted that what is on trial is not his reputation, but the Nigerian legal system itself. “This is not a trial of Dele Farotimi. Let nobody make that error. It is a trial of the legal system that we have built as a collective,” he asserted. He reaffirmed that his controversial book, ‘Nigeria and Its Criminal Justice System’, is not an attack on individuals, particularly legal luminary Chief Afe Babalola, but rather a critique of systemic corruption within the judiciary. He stressed that his work was written in pursuit of justice, not personal vendettas. “Chief Afe Babalola is more than old enough to be my father,” Farotimi said. “I did not set out to destroy the man or to tarnish his image. Nothing personal. I was writing about the institution of the judiciary.” Speaking, Farotimi maintained that his critique aimed at institutional failings rather than individuals. “Multiple names were mentioned in the book, and offices were mentioned. I did not set out to libel anybody,” he explained. “I simply told the truth of what I saw. All I did was write a book. Maybe we have become too accustomed to lies and allergic to truth, to the point where telling the truth has become a sin.” According to him, Nigerians must engage with uncomfortable truths if the country is to experience meaningful reform. “We have built a system that rewards deception and punishes truth. I am being sued not because I have lied, but because I have dared to speak the truth.” Farotimi also criticized those who dismissed his book without reading it, labelling their actions as intellectually lazy. “Ninety per cent of the persons criticizing me for whatever they believe my tactics to have been in writing the book have not read the book,” he argued. “If Nigerians would stop being so philistinic and illiterate, if they would dare to read, there would be no arguments as to the proof of what I have written.” Punch