Kayode Egbetokun, the Inspector General of Police, has filed additional charges against Dele Farotimi, a human rights lawyer and activist who is remanded in an Ekiti State prison.
Omoyele Sowore, the 2023 African Action Congress (AAC) presidential candidate, shared court papers which brought 12 charges against Farotimi in the Ekiti Federal High Court on Friday.
These charges follow defamation charges Afe Babalola, a senior advocate of Nigeria, filed against Farotimi.
Charges read:
That you Dele Farotimi ‘m’ on 28th August 2024 knowingly and intentionally transmitted communication in an online interview on Mic On Podcast by Seun Okinbaloye on your YouTube Channel (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4USuxBfZCOA) in respect of a book authored and published by you titled: “Nigeria and its Criminal Justice System” wherein you stated in the interview that: “Aare Afe Babalola corrupted the judiciary” which you know to be false information for the purpose of causing breakdown of law and order thereby committed an offence contrary to and punishable under Section 24(1) (b) of Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention, etc) Act 2015 as amended.
COUNT II: That you Dele Farotimi ‘m’ on 28th August 2024 knowingly and intentionally transmitted communication in an online interview on Mic On Podcast by Seun Okinbaloye on your Youtube Channel (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4USuxBfZCQA) in respect of a book authored and published by you titled: “Nigeria and its Criminal Justice System” wherein you stated in the interview that “Aare Afe Babalola corrupted the judiciary” with the intention of bullying and harassing the named persons thereby committed an offence contrary to and punishable under Section 24 (a) of Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention, etc) Act 2015 as amended.
COUNT III: That you Dele Farotimi ‘m’ on 2nd December, 2024 intentionally sent a message in the course of a press conference held on Online on your YouTube Channel (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0k6HzdQXLEK) where you stated that: “It came to my knowledge that there is a charge preferred before a court in Ekiti State against me at the instance of Chief Afe Babalola. This Charge has been fraudulently preferred,
it came across my practice. When I came across it, I challenged it as a lawyer and I fought him to the point where he could not enjoy the fruit of his exertion in the Supreme Court” with the intention of bullying and harassing the named persons thereby committed an offence contrary to and punishable under Section 24 (a) of Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention, etc) Act 2015 as amended.
COUNT VII: That you Dele Farotimi ‘m’ on 28th August 2024 knowingly and intentionally transmitted communication in an online interview on Mic On Podcast by Seun Okinbaloye on your YouTube Channel (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4USuxBfZCQA) in respect of a book authored and published by you titled: “Nigeria and its Criminal Justice System” wherein you stated that: “And I sued him for libel. And when I sue him for libel, the machines of corruption went into overdrive and a case that should never have been killed at the preliminary stage was killed” with the intention of bullying and harassing the named persons thereby committed an offence contrary to and punishable under Section 24 (a) of Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention, etc) Act 2015 as amended.
COUNT VIII: That you Dele Farotimi ‘m’ on 28th August 2024 knowingly
and intentionally transmitted communication in an online interview on Mic On Podcast by Seun Okinbaloye on your YouTube Channel (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4USuxBfZCQA) in respect of a book authored and published by you titled: “Nigeria and its Criminal Justice System” wherein you stated that: “if persons have perpetrated evil and they have reinforced and they have built a system that is as patently evil as in one in which we are living, it becomes the duty of the conscious, if you are conscious of the evil system, you must speak against it”with the intention of bullying and harassing the named persons thereby committed an offence contrary to and punishable under Section 24 (a) of Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention, etc) Act 2015 as amended.
COUNT IX: That you Dele Farotimi ‘m’ on 28th August 2024 knowingly
and intentionally transmitted communication in an online interview on Mic On Podcast by Seun Okinbaloye on your YouTube Channel (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4USuxBfZCQA) in respect of a book authored and published by you titled: “Nigeria and its Criminal Justice System” wherein you stated that: “when I said that he denied me justice, even you who has read the book, let me say this, how do
you explain that the person who was the chairperson at my wedding was the judge, the chairperson as my wedding who has not talked to me and has kept her distance and has been very malicious towards me since 2003 has never had a word to say to me, that was the person, my first employer as a lawyer, that was the judge the case was assigned to. My case against Afe Babalola was assigned to that judge” with the intention of bullying and harassing the named persons thereby committed an offence contrary to and punishable under Section 24 (a) of Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention, etc) Act 2015 as amended.
COUNT X: That you Dele Farotimi ‘m’ on 2nd December, 2024 intentionally sent a message in the course of a press conference held on Online on your YouTube Channel (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0k6HzdOXLEk) where you stated that: “I told the truth of his corruption of the society” which you know to contain false information for the purpose of causing breakdown of law and order thereby committed an offence contrary to and punishable under Section 24(1) (b) of Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention, etc) Act 2015 as amended.
COUNT XI: That you Dele Farotimi ‘m’ on 2nd December, 2024 intentionally sent a message in the course of a press conference held on Online on your YouTube Channel (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0k6HzdQXLEK) where you stated that: “I told the truth of his corruption of the society” with the intention of bullying and harassing the named persons thereby committed an offence contrary to and punishable under Section 24 (a) of Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention, etc) Act 2015 as amended.
COUNT XII: That you Dele Farotimi ‘m’ on 2nd December, 2024 intentionally sent a message in the course of a press conference held on Online on your Youtube Channel (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0k6HzdQXLEK) in reference to a book authored and published by you titled: “Nigeria and its Criminal Justice System” where you stated in the Press Conference that: “Aare Afe Babalola corrupted the Supreme Court to procure a fraudulent judgment in the service of his clients” which you know to contain false information for the purpose of causing breakdown of law and order thereby committed an offence contrary to and punishable under Section 24(1) (b) of Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention, etc) Act 2015 as amended.
Recall that renowned activist and lawyer, Dele Farotimi, was on Tuesday arrested in Lagos by operatives of the Ekiti State Police Command without prior notification to the Lagos State Police Command or Zone 2 Command.
Sources revealed that the Ekiti State officers stormed Lagos and picked up Farotimiin a “Gestapo-style,” leaving both the Lagos State Command and Zone 2 Command in the dark until the incident went public.
The arrest was carried out without logging or booking the case in Lagos or informing relevant authorities in the state, as required by law.
Instead, Farotimi was immediately transported by road to Ekiti State.
Reacting to the incident, Assistant Inspector General of Police (AIG) Zone 2 Command, Adegoke Fayoade, denied his command’s involvement in the arrest.
