The magistrate court in Ado-Ekiti has denied Dele Farotimi, a human rights activist, bail.
Farotimi was charged with alleged defamation of the founder of Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti (ABUAD), Aare Afe Babalola.
At the resumed sitting on Tuesday, the presiding magistrate, Abayomi Adeosun, delayed the bail application till December 20 after the police lawyer, Samson Osobu, demonstrated that the defendant’s bail application was incompetent and irregular.
Farotimi, who was arrested in Lagos on Tuesday, 3rd December, 2024, by operatives of the Ekiti state police command, was brought to the court at about 10:25 am Wednesday.
Chronicle reports that the activist lawyer is being prosecuted on a 16-count charge of defamation of character against a legal luminary and founder of Afe Babalola University, Aare Afe Babalola SAN.
He was accused of having maligned and defamed the character of Afe Babalola in his recently published book titled, ‘Nigeria and Its Criminal Justice System.’.
The Ekiti State Commissioner of Police (CP), Adeniran Akinwale, on Tuesday, defended his arrest for alleged cyberbullying and defamation.
The CP said the offences allegedly committed by the activist lawyer included “defamation of character, cyberstalking, and other things,” noting that those two allegations were “fully established.”
He said, “We are investigating him (Farotimi). If the suspect is arrested, we will bring him for investigation. We will conduct our investigation and will be able to know his level of culpability or otherwise.”
