Afe Babalola, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), has provided an explanation in his book for why well-known human rights attorney and activist Dele Farotimi purposefully malnourished him.
Babalola, speaking through his legal team in Ado Ekiti on Friday, which included Owoseni Ajayi, Lawrence Fasanmi, and Olakanmi Falade, accused Farotimi of writing the book after his firm failed to get a favorable ruling for his client in a land dispute case.
The senior lawyer accused the activist of defaming him in his book “Nigeria and Its Criminal Justice System,” according to a previous article in TheNiche.
In the article, Farotimi claimed that Babalola had bribed the Supreme Court to secure a false ruling for his clients.
He was then taken into custody by an Ado Ekiti Chief Magistrate Court on Wednesday, December 3, and placed under remand in prison.
In her remarks, Babalola voiced concern about the public’s responses to the defamation case against Farotimi.
He, however, maintained that Farotimi had to either apologize or face the legal repercussions of his behavior.
Former Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice in Ekiti State Ajayi, one of his attorneys, added that Farotimi should have known, as a lawyer, that making such accusations against the judiciary and elder statesman would have serious repercussions.
If the matter were this simple and straightforward, a rejoinder in the form of your own book would have effectively taken care of the situation. You would rather show your power and make things more difficult for yourself and others that were implicated.
According to him: “The Ojomu family in 1977 sold 254 hectares of land at Osapa Eti-Osa Local Government area of Lagos State to the late Gbadamosi Bamidele Eletu. In 1989, the said land was subsequently acquired by the state government. The Ojomu family contested the acquisition in Suit No. ID/1883/89, wherein the court set aside the acquisition by the Lagos Government.
In spite of the land’s previous sale to the late Gbadamosi Bamidele Eletu, the Ojomu family then filed a lawsuit in the Lagos State High Court, arguing that they had regained title to the property.
“The Gbadamosi Eletu family lost the case at the High Court and the Court of Appeal before briefing Afe Babalola ‘s Chambers to represent them at the Supreme Court. On 13/7/2013 judgement was delivered by the Supreme Court in favour of the Eletu family. By this judgement, the Supreme Court recognised the sale of land to the Gbadamosi Eletu family; 254 hectares were sold to the Eletu family. Honourable Justice Kumai Bayang, aka AHS JSC, who wrote the lead judgement, recorded 10 hectares in error instead of 254 hectares.
“Upon the delivery of the judgement, the Gbadamosi Eletu family surreptitiously employed the services of SB Joseph & Co to enforce the judgement before Afe Babalola Chambers applied for variation of the judgement. This was presumed to be because the Eletu family wanted to avoid paying Afe Babalola’s Chambers’ professional fees.
“However, in 2014, the Gbadamosi Eletu family came back to Afe Babalola Chambers. Immediately, lawyers from Afe Babalola’s chambers filed a motion for variation of the judgement of the Supreme Court pursuant to Order 8 Rule 16 of the Rules of the Supreme Court, which allows application to be brought to correct clerical errors. The said motion was heard and ruling delivered on 18/3/2014 granting statutory right of occupancy to the Gbadamosi Eletu family in respect to the entire 254 hectares sold to the late Gbadamosi Bamidele Eletu by the Ojomu family.
“Several estates affected by the Supreme Court judgement include Pinnock Estate, Beach Resort, Friends’ Colony Estate, Victory Park Estate and NICON Estate etc. Dele Farotimi was one of the estate lawyers.
“The affected individuals and estates immediately filed fresh suits against the Eletu family to frustrate the Supreme Court judgment. Eletu family was lured by the affected estates to settle some of the suits behind Babalola’s chambers despite being counsel on record. They filed terms of settlement with the court without the knowledge of Babalola chambers.
“Clearly, all these assertions in his said book run foul of Section 59 of the Criminal Code Act: Publication of false news with intent to cause fear and alarm in the public.”
Published by Chuks Nwachuku
