Afe Babalola Is Old Enough To Be My Father, I Did Not Set Out To Destroy Him – Farotimi Clarifies Intention Behind Controversial Book

Activist and lawyer, Dele Farotimi, has stated that his book ‘Nigeria and its Criminal Justice System’ was not written in a moment of idle talk or baseless accusations but rather a well-researched work documenting his experiences and observations about the Nigerian judicial system.

He reaffirmed that his controversial book, is not an attack on individuals, particularly founder of Afe Babalola University, Ado Ekiti, Aare Afe Babalola (SAN), but rather a critique of systemic corruption within the judiciary.

Recall that the Babalola (SAN), on January 27, agreed to withdraw the cases instituted against Farotimi.

Babalola had sued Farotimi on grounds of defamation. He petitioned the police commissioner in Ekiti State that Farotimi defamed him in a book titled ‘Nigeria and its Criminal Justice System.

The police subsequently arrested the activist lawyer and arraigned him before two courts in Ekiti.

However, Babalola had announced his withdrawal of the case against Farotimi citing the intervention of the Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi, and other top traditional rulers.

Speaking during during the Toyin Falola Interviews on Sunday, Farotimi disclosed that while the police had withdrawn criminal charges against him following Babalola’s petition withdrawal, he still faced four civil suits across different states, all filed by members of Babalola’s law office.

“My inability to speak to certain aspects of this issue is borne out of the fact that, despite the discontinuation of the criminal proceeding, I still have four suits that I am aware of, in four different states of the federation, filed by members of the same law office, against my person.

“I did not sit down in a beer parlour; I was not at an officers’ mess; I was not gossiping. It was not idle, cheap talk. I wrote a book,”

“Let us deal with veracity. Anybody can go and read and then come back and challenge me with the lie that I have told,” he declared.

Dismissing claims that the controversy surrounding his book is a personal battle, Farotimi insisted that what is on trial is not his reputation, but the Nigerian legal system itself.

“This is not a trial of Dele Farotimi. Let nobody make that error. It is a trial of the legal system that we have built as a collective,” he asserted.

He stressed that his work was written in pursuit of justice, not personal vendettas.

“Chief Afe Babalola is more than old enough to be my father.

“I did not set out to destroy the man or to tarnish his image. Nothing personal. I was writing about the institution of the judiciary.

“Multiple names were mentioned in the book, and offices were mentioned. I did not set out to libel anybody.

“I simply told the truth of what I saw. All I did was write a book. Maybe we have become too accustomed to lies and allergic to truth, to the point where telling the truth has become a sin,” he said.