Human rights lawyer, activist and author, Dele Farotimi, has been granted bail by the Ekiti State High Court, five days after he was remanded in custody by an Ekiti State Magistrates Court.
The court granted Farotimi bail in the sum of N50 million, with a surety in like sum, adding that the surety must possess a landed property in Ekiti.
The court then adjourned the matter to January 29, 2025 for further proceedings.
Farotimi was arrested in Lagos last week Tuesday and bundled to Ekiti, where he was arraigned before a Magistrates Court on charges that he defamed a legal luminary and Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), 95-year-old Aare Afe Babalola, in his book, Nigeria and Its Criminal Justice System. He pleaded not guilty to the 16-count charge but the magistrate remanded him in custody till December 10.
Farotimi’s arrest and remand quickly sparked outrage, with many individuals and organisations calling for his immediate release. At the same time, search for his book spiked on Amazon, which listed it as its number one Bestseller worldwide. Rovingheights, a bookstore in Lagos, reported that its site crashed following unusual traffic from those searching for the book.
The police later filed fresh charges against Farotimi at a Federal High Court in Ado-Ekiti bordering on cybercrime allegations picked from the activist’s online interviews. The police said Farotimi appeared on journalist Seun Okinbaloye’s Mic On Podcast where he accused Babalola of corrupting the judiciary.
Amidst Farotimi’s remand in custody, the Take It Back Movement said its members would stage protests in Ekiti, Lagos, Abuja, London and Canada on December 10.
Despite Ekiti State Police Command’s ban of unlawful gatherings, demonstrations, and the sale and use of fireworks across the state, the Take It Back Movement insisted in a post on X on Sunday that it would go ahead with its planned protest in Ado-Ekiti.
