The apex Yoruba socio-cultural organisation, Afenifere, has called for the immediate release of human rights lawyer and author of the controversial book, Nigeria And its Criminal Justice System, Mr. Dele Farotimi, insisting that his incarceration and prosecution are outside the confines of the law.
In a world press conference in Lagos earlier today – Wednesday, December 18 – the Deputy leader of the group, His Royal Majesty, Oba Oladipo Olaitan, described Farotimi’s travails as “the travails of democracy, the grievous curtailment of free speech and the deprivation of the constitutional right to personal liberty.”
Farotimi, a member of Afenifere, was arrested in his office by the police on the 3rd of this month, and taken to Ekiti State over charges of defamation in his book leveled against him by a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Chief Afe Babalola.
According to Oba Olaitan, the manner of Farotimi’s arrest was reminiscent of the Gestapo style: “Mr. Farotimi was arrested in his office in a manner that can best be described as an abduction. Plain clothes policemen wielding guns arrived at his office, roughly shoving aside lawyers and other members of staff and dispossessing them of their phones and other instruments of work.
“As demanded by the rules, the arrest was neither logged nor booked in any Lagos Police station where the arrest took place. Instead, Mr. Farotimi was summarily transported to Ekiti State, bypassing all protocols…it is a setup for a person who is not running away from arraignment,” the traditional agaonized.
“Mr. Farotimi had earlier on issued a press release stating that Chief Afe Babalola as the person behind the plan to arrest and abduct him to Ekiti State over allegations of defamation in his book: Nigeria and its Criminal Justice System.
“Chief Babalola is a senior legal practitioner, proprietor and Chancellor of Afe Babalola University, a man reputed to wield enormous influence in Ekiti society and a larger than life personality. He has also been a co-traveller with Afenifere in the campaign for the restructuring of Nigeria”
Describing Farotimi’s arrest as an injustice to Afenifere, Oba Olaitan said the world must know that the system is playing a trick on Afenifere with the human rights lawyer’s arrest and arraignment.
He queried Ekiti Magistrate Court’s insistence on a written application for bail for Farotimi.
“As if that was not enough, the Inspector General of Police slammed Cyber stalking/ Cyber bullying charges against Farotimi at the Federal High Court, Ado Ekiti.
“It is noteworthy that Mr. Farotimi was brought to court in handcuffs even as the public is a witness to an accused neither known to be a violent person nor a risk to flee from justice (being handcuffed in an open court). It’s a clear attempt to humiliate him. (And yet we are all often witnesses to) the scenario of public office holders on allegations of corrupt practices not being handcuffed,” Oba Olaitan further lamented.
“In the meantime, cases against him requiring his attention are being filed in as disparate places as Abuja and Port Harcourt while he is incarcerated for an offence not known to laws of Ekiti or Lagos.
“The delay in granting bail to Mr. Farotimi has confirmed the fears of well-meaning people all over the world that these processes are driven by extraneous considerations outside the facts and laws in respect of the petition on which the Police and the Chief Magistrate in Ekiti are hinging their actions….Chief Afe Babalola, like every citizen, has a right to defend his reputation if injured to the full extent of the law but not outside the strictures of the law,” he added.
Afenifere, he further stated, is calling “for the immediate unconditional release of Mr. Farotimi and for the investigation of the circumstances surrounding his abduction and travails in the hands of his abductors.”
“It is curious that anyone who has read Farotimi’s book subject matter of the charge of defamation could not have come to the conclusion that Farotimi relies on court processes which themselves are public records,” Oba Olaitan surmised.
