Another Nigerian lawyer from Afe Babalola’s law firm sues Farotimi

Another lawyer from Afe Babalola’s law firm has filed a N600 million libel suit against Dele Farotimi.

Ola Faro filed the suit at the Rivers State High Court in Port Harcourt on 11 December, alleging that Mr Farotimi defamed him in his controversial book, ‘Nigeria and its Criminal Justice System’.

The suit comes on the heel of an earlier one regarding the content of the book filed at the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court in Abuja by Kehinde Ogunwumiju, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) and managing partner at Afe Babalola & Co.

Mr Ogunwumiju obtained on Wednesday an interim order for the seizure of the physical copies of the book ahead of further hearing in the case, which seeks N500 million in damages against Mr Farotimi.

Aside from the civil cases, the police are prosecuting Mr Farotimi on charges of criminal defamation at a chief magistrate’s court and cybercrime at the Federal High Court, both in Ado Ekiti, Ekiti State.

The criminal cases were prompted by a petition Mr Babalola sent to the police in Ekiti State, alleging criminal defamation against him in Mr Farotimi’s book.

The law firm has also petitioned the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Committee (LPDC) seeking Mr Farotimi’s disbarment over his claims in the book against it, its lawyers, and the Nigerian judiciary, particularly the Supreme Court.

For his part, Mr Faro referenced excerpts from the book alleging that he, along with Mr Babalola and his law firm, Afe Babalola & Co., as well as its lawyers, compromised the Supreme Court and the remaining semblance of integrity it.

He said Mr Farotimi’s statements are false and incorrect written deliberately to destroy his reputation.

He maintained that the statements were meant to lower his law firm’s self-esteem in the eyes of members of the society and also to expose it to hatred, contempt or ridicule in the eyes of right thinking members of the society.

He seeks N500 million in damages against Mr Farotimi for unlawful defamation of his character in the book, and N100 million in damages for distributing the book.

He also sought a perpetual injunction restraining Mr Farotimi, his marketers, agents from further distribution

The suit is the latest in the series of legal actions, including criminal and civil cases Mr Farotimi has faced over the content of the book since last week.

The book, Farotimi’s legal challenges

Mr Babalola, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) and founder of Afe Babalola University Ado-Ekiti (ABUAD), had petitioned the police in Ekiti State accusing Mr Farotimi of defaming him in his book.

Mr Babalola had cited 31 excerpts from the book, including one that accused him of corrupting the Supreme Court in the service of his clients.

Acting on Mr Babalola’s petition, the police have charged Mr Farotimi with criminal defamation at a chief magistrate’s court and with cybercrime at the Federal High Court, both in Ado-Ekiti.

The Federal High Court judge, Babs Kuewumi, granted bail to Mr Farotimi in the sum of N50 million and adjourned the trial till 29 January 2025.

But the chief magistrate’s court fixed 20 December to rule on Mr Farotimi’s bail application.

In addition to the criminal cases, a lawyer from Mr Babalola’s firm, Kehinde Ogunwumiju, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, has also sued Mr Farotimi for N500 million in a civil libel case at the FCT High Court in Abuja.

Mr Ogunwumiju said Mr Farotimi libelously accused the law firm of “compromising the integrity of the Supreme Court,” scheming with “crooked lawyers and incompetent justices,” and “doctoring” a Supreme Court judgement.

He denied all the allegations.

On Wednesday, the court ordered the seizure of physical copies of the book wherever it might be found.

Excerpts from the book complained about by Faro

The following are excerpts from the book Mr Faro alleged to be defamatory in his suit.

*That Aare Afe Babalola, Olu Daramola, Olu Faro and the law offices of Afe Babalola & Co, (Emmanuel Chambers) compromised the Supreme Court and the remaining semblance of integrity it might have had when they went back to the Supreme Court and got the Court to swim in the sewer of corruption and Shameful self-abnegation”. See page X

* “But even as Atilade J. played the contrition game, she was already part of the game plan being staged together by the grandmaster of judicial corruption in Nigeria, Afe Babalola, I have come to the conclusion that the required form of the application and her ruling were all part of the insidious plans of Afe Babalola, his band of crooked lawyers and coterie of crooked/incompetent justices of the Supreme Court”. See page 59.

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“The battle to quash the warrant opened my eyes to the extent of the rot in the court system and I came to the knowledge of the sickening realities of the systemic putrefaction. The Supreme Court’s Judgement was doctored by the confederation of lawyers in Afe Babalola’s chambers and the law offices of S.B Joseph & Co and the end desired by the confederacy was sought with the active connivance of the head judge of the Lagos Division, Atilade J.”. See page 60.

* “We quickly realized that the law office of Afe Babalola & Co, Emmanuel Chambers had outsourced the judgement execution to another law office, the firm of S.B Joseph & Co the firm had fraudulently and deliberately concealed the judgement of AKA’AHS and had underlined the words of Justice Rhodes Vivour to deceive and perhaps mislead Atilade or as is more likely, Atilade was always a part of the original fraud”. See page 56.

* “There is nothing of the bastard in the men and women peopling our criminal justice system but it is the system itself that is criminal and it is the practitioners, from the registrars to we the lawyers and the judges that are generally criminal…… completely hopeless and unfit for purpose”. page XVII