by Peace Akpobome

Human rights lawyer, activist and author, Dele Farotimi, has filed a preliminary objection asking the Ado Ekiti Magistrate Court to throw out the defamation suit filed against him.

The objection, dated December 9, 2024, comes ahead of the December 10 hearing of the defamation charge against him.

Filed by Farotimi’s legal team led by Adeyinka Olumide-Fusika, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), together with 19 other lawyers, the objection was brought under Article 36(8) OF THE CONSTITUTION OF THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA, 1999, SECTION 4(1) OF THE CRIMINAL LAW OF THE EKITI STATE, SECTION 77 (10(a), 147 AND 370 OF THE EKITI STATE ADMINISTRATION OF CRIMINAL LAW, 2014) and SECTIONS 25 AND 42 OF THE MAGISTRATES COURTS LAW (N0.5, 2014) OF THE STATE OF EKITI.

In the five grounds of appeal, Farotimi argues, among other things, that the charge before the court is unknown to the law, does not exist and that the magistrate acted without jurisdiction on the basis of an incompetent charge.

In concrete terms, the five grounds for the request are:

(1) that the 16 charges before the Magistrate Court relate to alleged offenses contrary to and punishable under the Criminal Code Act.

(2) that the Criminal Code Act was a law applicable by adoption and/or domestication in the Ekiti State of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as the Criminal Code Act, Cap. C16. Laws of Ekiti, 2012.

(3) that the Criminal Code Act, Cap. C16, Laws of Ekiti, 2012, is superseded and expressly repealed by Section 429 (a) of the Criminal Code of Ekiti State, 2021.

(4) that the offense of defamation of Aare Afe Babalola, SAN, OFR, and two of its partners, Olu Daramola, SAN, Olu Faro and the law firm of Afe Babalola & Co., is alleged and specified in all the said counts of the De charge, and on the basis of which the accused was charged and unknowingly ordered to be detained in prison by the Honorable Magistrate, is unknown to and does not exist in the Criminal Law of Ekiti State, 2021.

(5)In the premise, the Honorable Magistrate acted without jurisdiction when he approved the indictment, allowed the arraignment of the accused and ordered his imprisonment in prison on the said incompetent indictment.

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.

On Monday, December 9, five days after his remand, Farotimi was granted bail by the Ekiti State High Court in the sum of N50 million, with a surety in like sum.

The court then adjourned the matter to January 29, 2025 for further proceedings.