The founder of Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti (ABUAD), Aare Afe Babalola, has said that Dele Farotimi, the human rights activist recently remanded by Ekiti Magistrate Court, will be free if he proves the allegations leveled against him.
Farotimi, in his book titled “Nigeria and its Criminal Justice System”, accused Afe Babalola of corrupting the judiciary. He was remanded on Wednesday after he was arrested at his chambers by the Ekiti State Police Command.
Addressing journalists on Friday at the Afe Babalola Bar Centre, Ado-Ekiti, Owoseni Ajayi, the lead counsel to Babalola, said Farotimi’s defamatory remarks in his book were targeted to injure the hard-earned reputation of the legal icon, which cannot be remedied by any award of damages.
The former Commissioner for Justice in Ekiti, joined by the duo of the State’s ex-chairmen of NBA, Olasunkanmi Falade and Lawrence Fasanmi, explained that Farotimi has been inconvenient with Babalola, who won a land dispute case in 2014, where the human rights activist was neither a party nor a counsel in the case.
Babalola had filed a motion for the variation of the judgment of the Supreme Court to correct clerical errors on a certain land portion, which further affected some estates where Farotimi happened to be a lawyer to one of them.
Owoseni emphasised that Farotimi wrote the book not because any injustice was done to him, but because he could not get judgment for his client in court.
The lead counsel wondered why Afe Babalola, who was accused of corrupting the judiciary would lose cases in court and still be fined with over N30 million by the same Supreme Court accused of corruption.
He added that Farotimi’s action is an offence punishable under Section 59 of the Criminal Code Act, which emphasises the publication of false news with intent to cause fear and alarm in the public.