Remanding Farotimi for bailable offence unjustifiable — Afenifere

The pan-Yoruba socio-political organisation, Afenifere, has described as unjustifiable the remand of Dele Farotimi, a human rights lawyer, at a correctional centre by an Ado-Ekiti Magistrate Court.

While calling for the immediate release of Farotimi, the frontline Yoruba group stated that the offence for which the rights lawyer was arrested is bailable, hence the infringement on his rights.

An Ekiti State Chief Magistrates’ Court, Ado Ekiti Division had, on Wednesday, ordered the remand of human rights lawyer, Dele Farotimi, in the state’s correctional centre over alleged defamation of character following his book, ‘Nigeria and its Criminal Justice System,’ where he alleged, among others, that a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Afe Babalola, had compromised the Supreme Court.

Farotimi was arrested in Lagos on Monday by policemen from Ekiti State and whisked to Ado Ekiti, following which he was arraigned on Wednesday.

According to Afenifere, in a statement by its Deputy Leader, Oba Oladipo Olaitan, and National Publicity Secretary, Prince Justice Faloye, the petitioner, Aare Afe Babalola, should not allow his name to be associated with the “shenanigans” of disrespect for the territorial limits of the powers of the constituent states.

READ ALSO: FG, Ekiti govt face ultimatum over Dele Farotimi’s detention

The statement read:”The proceedings at the Ado-Ekiti Magistrate Court yesterday, wherein Dele Farotimi was, despite the application of his counsel, denied bail and ordered to be remanded at the Correctional Centre for such a bailable offence of defamation after each of the 16 counts in the charge had been read and to which he respectively pleaded not guilty, only confirmed the fears of well-meaning people all over the world that these processes were driven by extraneous considerations outside the facts and laws of the case.

“This is further buttressed by the fact that the book containing the alleged defamatory statements was authored and published in Lagos, where the defendant resides and was abducted and at which airport the petitioner claimed a copy was obtained.

“As contained in the charge, the only ridiculous reason for shopping for Ado-Ekiti as the forum of arraignment is that ‘the book titled *Nigeria and its Criminal Justice System* was received and read all over the world, including Ado-Ekiti.’

“The only inference that could be drawn from this is that there is no territorial limit for the trial of the alleged offence, which is laughable. It is ironic that the judiciary, whose act is apparently the subject of Farotimi’s book and trial, may by this insensitive indiscretion also be putting itself on trial before the world either for incompetence or apparent undue influence.

“The foremost Afenifere considers Aare Afe Babalola an icon with whom we share common views on the restructuring of the Nigerian Federation and true federalism, and it will be most unfortunate for his name to be associated by the police with the shenanigans of disrespect for the territorial limits of the powers of the constituent states notwithstanding the flawed Nigerian federalism of unitary policing.

READ ALSO: Farotimi’s remand is unconstitutional, says CRRAN

“In this case, Afenifere shares the views most recently held by the Supreme Court in the case of Aviomoh v. Commissioner of Police (2022) 4 NWLR (Pt 1819) 69 that ‘punishing defamation with criminal conviction and pain of imprisonment is excessive and out of proportion to the objective of protecting the reputation damaged by defamation when the civil law provides sufficient remedy to the person aggrieved.’”

The foremost Yoruba group further stated that rather than further muddling itself in this case where its obvious descent into the arena by which its constitutional impartiality may have been so impaired to act in persecution rather than in the office of the prosecution, the police are enjoined to allow the parties to sort themselves out in civil courts.

“Farotimi is a legal practitioner of 25 years at the Nigerian Bar. From reports from both sides, this is not the first time he and the petitioner have had their days in court over libel suits bothering on professional issues, the fallout from which may now have only been documented in a book.

“If the police, however, feel mandatorily called upon to act, which we find no justification for, let it be seen to assist the courts in ensuring not only that justice is served but manifestly done in accordance with the enabling laws and their equally important due process. Farotimi is presumed innocent by the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, which also casts the burden of proof of the charges against him on the prosecution.”