ADO-EKITI – A Federal High Court in Nigeria’s western city of Ado-Ekiti has granted human rights activist and lawyer Dele Farotimi a ₦50 million bail in a defamation case filed by one Afe Babalola, a strongman in the country’s southwestern state of Ekiti.
“Dele Farotimi was granted bail of N50 million naira surety in the like sum with someone with landed property. The case was adjourned to 29 January 2025,” fellow human rights activist Omoyele Sowore announced on social media platform X on Monday.
Babalola, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) had deployed the police to brutalise and arrest Farotimi on December 3 over a defamation allegation. The human rights lawyer was also transported from Lagos to Ekiti —where the nonagenarian wields significant influence— on a five-hour road trip.
In his trending book “Nigeria and Its Criminal Justice System”, Farotimi revealed how the Babalola won services cases using corrupt strategies.
The controversy surrounding the book, which initially saw low sales after its release in July, has made it a bestseller on Amazon within three days of its author’s incarceration as curious Nigerians abroad – besieged the site with orders to read the damning accusations of corruption levelled against Babalola.
The book has also sold out in popular stores like Tinu-Ade Bookshop in Ibadan and VIC Bookstore in Abuja, where Nigerians have trooped to purchase it.
Meanwhile, a Wikileaks classified United States diplomatic cable had exposed how Afe Babalola and former president Olusegun Obasanjo, way back in 2004 allegedly purchased a Court of Appeal ruling that ensured the then Adamawa State governor, Boni Haruna, remained in office.
According to the US diplomatic cable, an attorney for then Governor Haruna, who worked for Afe Babalola, confirmed that the favourable ruling by the Court of Appeal “was ensured in typical Nigerian fashion: with cash.”
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