Defamation: Afe Babalola seeks disbarment of Farotimi
The legal battle between human rights lawyer and the legal luminary has taken a new shape following the petition of the law firm of top lawyer Afe Babalola to the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Committee (LPDC), seeking the disbarment of the embattled Dele Farotimi over a defamatory comment on his controversial book, titled, ‘Nigeria and its criminal justice system.’
It was gathered that Afe Babalola & Co.’s 90-page petition dated 6 December was addressed to the LPDC, the regulatory body in charge of disciplining lawyers in line with the Legal Practitioners Act and the Rules of Professional Conduct for lawyers.
It was also gathered that, in the petition, the law firm said Farotimi violated provisions of the rules governing the professional conduct of lawyers.
It said that he “engaged in conduct which is unbecoming of a legal practitioner by making false accusations against the Supreme Court and the legal profession.”
The petition also stated that Mr Farotimi engaged in “conduct that he believes to be unlawful by bribing judicial officers and having unlawful access to a judicial officer.”
It also accused Mr Farotimi of making defamatory remarks about the Nigerian justice system and its judicial officers.
“Treated his fellow lawyers without respect, fairness, consideration and dignity, allowing ill feeling between opposing clients to influence his conduct and demeanour by distorting the facts of a case in the cause of his practice as a legal practitioner,” a part of the petition stated.
The petition said he also treated the courts, particularly the Supreme Court, “without respect, dignity and honour by using uncouth, unprofessional, undignified and offensive language against the Supreme Court and the justices of the Supreme Court.”
The petition accused Mr Farotimi of indicating that “he discussed a pending case with a judge trying the case in the absence of an opposing lawyer.”
“The contravention of these rules by the Respondent (Farotimi) prompted this petition to protect the dignity of the legal profession, the dignity of the court as the temple of justice and to uphold the standards of the legal profession,” the petition added.
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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, citing 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, accusing him of libelously “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.
Source: Premium Times
