Court grants N50m bail to Dele Farotimi

In a case of defamation brought by Aare Afe Babalola, a federal high court in Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State, put Dele Farotimi out on bail.Court grants N50m bail to Dele Farotimi

Omoyele Sowore, the presidential candidate for the African Action Congress (AAC) in 2023, tweeted about the news on Monday.

Court grants N50m bail to Dele Farotimi

Sowore said that Farotimi was given N50 million bail and a surety in the same amount who had to put up land as collateral.

Background
In his book “Nigeria and its Criminal Justice System,” Farotimi is accused of slandering Aare Afe Babalola (SAN), a famous lawyer and founder of Afe Babalola University Ado-Ekiti (ABUAD). He was arrested in Lagos last Tuesday and brought to Ado-Ekiti to stand trial.

For example, Farotimi wrote in the book that Babalola bribed the Supreme Court to get his clients a false verdict.

In the introduction to his book, Farotimi listed 10 claims that Babalola, his law firm, and other lawyers were corrupt and did bad work.

Some important parts of the book include claims that:

Babalola bribed the Supreme Court so that his clients could get fake judgements.

To get an execution warrant, the law firm of S.B. Joseph & Co. changed the Supreme Court’s original decision.

Justice Atilade issued the fake warrant illegally, but it was later thrown out.

Babalola and his friends harmed the integrity of the judiciary by breaking the rules.

The Nigerian justice system is based on crime and collusion, and it can’t really do justice.

Babalola denied all of the claims, saying they were lies meant to hurt his reputation and the legacy of his law firm, which opened in 1965.

He asked that all copies of the book be taken off the market.

New 12-count charge
Also, on Friday, the Police, Ekiti State Command, brought new charges against Dele Farotimi.

A new 12-count charge was brought before a federal high court in Ado-Ekiti. Some of the charges are similar to cybercrime charges.

The charge says, “That you, Dele Farotimi’m’, knowingly and intentionally transmitted communication in an online interview on the ‘Mic On’ podcast by Seun Okinbaloye on your YouTube channel about a book you wrote and published called “Nigeria and its Criminal Justice System.” In the interview, you said that “Aare Afe Babalola corrupted the judiciary,” which you knew to be false, in order to cause law and order to break down. This is against the law and is punishable under Section 24(1)(b) of the Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention, etc.) Act 2015 as amended.”