A renowned Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Aare Afe Babalola, has claimed that lawyer and activist Dele Farotimi defamed him in a book he published recently.

This is contained in a petition dated November 19 and addressed to the Ekiti State Commissioner of Police, Adeniran Akinwale.

Babalola detailed how his law firm discovered Farotimi’s book, Nigeria and Its Criminal Justice System and the defamatory contents therein.

“I write to report the criminal defamation of myself, my law firm Afe Babalola & Co and my lawyers in person of Olu Daramola SAN and Ola Faro by one Dele Farotimi in his book titled ‘NIGERIA AND ITS CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM’ published by Dele Farotimi publishers in respect of Suit no: SC/146/2005: Major Muritala Gbadamosi Eletu & Ors V. H.R.H Oba Tijani Akinloye & Ors,” the petition read.

He claimed the book contained several defamatory statements that questioned his integrity and accused his law firm of unethical practices, including corrupting the judiciary.

He added, “Sometime on 2/11/2024, one of our lawyers while travelling through Murtala Muhammed Airport bought a book by Dele Farotimi titled ‘NIGERIA AND ITS CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM’ published by Dele Farotimi publishers. He read the said book and immediately brought it to my attention. Many of my lawyers also bought the said book and read same.”

Babalola stated that the book accused him of “corrupting the Supreme Court from ages past and had led it to commit the most egregious acts of evil and wanting injustice.”

The petition noted, “The said defamatory statements are detailed below:

“That Aare Afe Babalola corrupted the Supreme Court to procure a fraudulent judgement in the service of his client” See page IX.

“That Aare Afe Babalola, Olu Daramola, Olu Faro and the law offices of Afe Babalola & Co, (Emmanuel Chambers) compromised the Supreme Court and the remaining semblance of integrity it might have had when they went back to the Supreme Court and got the Court to swim in the sewer of corruption and shameful self-Abnegation”. See page X

“That Afe Babalola libeled me and the fact of the libel became known to me in a suit against Lawal Pedro SAN”. See page X.

“That I sued Afe Babalola SAN for libel and he leveraged his influence in the Judiciary to deny me justice”. See page X.”

Giving a background of the case, the petition stated that the case concerned 254 hectares of land in Lagos, which the Supreme Court awarded to his client in 2013.

He further alleged that Farotimi’s comments in the book suggested that he and his law firm compromised the judiciary, tarnishing the integrity of the apex court.