Afe Babalola, the senior advocate of Nigeria (SAN), says he took legal action against Dele Farotimi, a human rights advocate, to address the “falsity of his allegations and hold him account for his actions”.
On Tuesday, operatives from the police command in Ekiti
arrested Farotimi in Lagos over a petition about alleged defamation and
cyberbullying.
Farotimi had, in a statement, alleged that officers attached
to the Ekiti police command had perfected plans to abduct him from Lagos.
He accused the command of deploying questionable means to
lure him for arrest despite honouring the invitation of the zone 2 police
headquarters in Lagos some weeks ago.
The police accused Farotimi of “criminally defaming”
Babalola, the legal luminary, in a book titled: “Nigeria and its Criminal
Justice System”.
On Wednesday, the Ekiti state magistrate court in Ado-Ekiti
remanded Farotimi after he was arraigned on a 16-count. The activist pleaded
not guilty to all the charges.
Since his arrest, there have been strident calls on social
media for his release, including from political bigwigs like Peter Obi and
Atiku Abubakar.
Omoyele Sowore, publisher of Sahara Reporters, has asked
Nigerians to join a “nationwide/global protest” against the judiciary over the
prosecution of the human rights activist.
However, in a statement on Friday issued by Afe Babalola
& Co., his law firm, the erudite lawyer said no amount of street yelling
and media tactics would stop the prosecution of Farotimi.
“We acknowledge several concerns and suggestions on this
subject and the inference that the firm and its members would be better served
by ignoring these published falsehoods,” the statement, signed by Adebayo
Adenipekun, a senior advocate of Nigeria (SAN), reads.
“However, if we do not take any action to correct the false,
reckless, and malicious statements by this author, our silence will necessarily
be interpreted as an admission of guilt.
“Afe Babalola & Co is a law-abiding organisation that
operates strictly within the law. We are aware of the implications of the steps
we are taking and the possibility of spin and manipulation by this author, his
acolytes, uninformed members of the public, and others who, like him, view us
maliciously.
“Still, we are convinced that the legal steps we take now
and in the future are the only way to address the falsity of the author’s
allegations and hold him to account for his deliberate assault on the integrity
and reputation that our founder, Aare Afe Babalola, OFR, CFR, SAN, LLD, has
built and passed on to us over the past seven decades using nothing but hard
work, legal knowledge, and trenchant advocacy.
“The constitution recognises fundamental human rights, and
our firm has championed these rights in over sixty years of its existence.
“However, these rights are not absolute; the freedom to
speak is not freedom from consequences of speech. And the subject of speech
also has a fundamental right to hold the speaker accountable using lawful
means.
“Since the matter is sub judice, we do not intend to join
issues in the media on the merits of our complaints or the strength of evidence
against Mr. Farotimi.
“Unlike him, we believe in the justice delivery system every
time—not only when it favours us. In six decades of litigating cases across
Nigeria, we have encountered several lawyers who prevailed against us in
court.”
“Their existence disproves Mr. Farotimi’s wild accusations
and indicates that at the end of this process, only the law will matter—not the
media tactic or street yelling.”
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