AfriqueCAN
HUMAN rights activist Dele Farotimi, has filed a preliminary objection asking the court to strike out the defamation charge against him.
Farotimi filed the preliminary injection at the Ado Ekiti Magistrate Court ahead of Tuesday’s hearing.
The suit dated December 9, 2024, was filed through his lawyer, Adeyinka Olumide-Fusika (SAN) leading 19 others.
In the five grounds of the objection, the activist contends that the charge before the magistrate court is unknown to law, non-existent and that the magistrate acted without jurisdiction on an incompetent charge.
Specifically, the five grounds of the application are that the 16 count charge before the magistrate court refers to alleged offences contrary to and punishable under the ”Criminal Code Act”.
Farotimi, also a lawyer, stated that the Criminal Code Act was a law applicable by adoption and/or domestication in Ekiti State of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as the Criminal Code Law, Cap. C16. Laws of Ekiti, 2012.
He pointed out that the Criminal Code Law, Cap. C16, Laws of Ekiti, 2012 has been replaced and expressly repealed by Section 429 (a) of the Criminal Law of Ekiti State, 2021.
The objection noted that the crime of defamation of Aare Afe Babalola, SAN, OFR, and two of his partners, Olu Daramola, SAN, Olu Faro and the law firm of Afe Babalola & Co., alleged and particularised in all said counts of the Charge, and upon which the Defendant was arraigned and unwittingly ordered detained in prison by the – Honourable Magistrate, is unknown to and are non-existent in the Críminal Law of Ekiti State, 2021.
“Also, in the premise, the Honourable Magistrate acted without jurisdiction when he countenanced the Charge, allowed the arraignment of the Defendant, and ordered his detention in prison upon the said incompetent charge.”
Farotimi was arrested and charged to court on 16 counts of criminal defamation, following the publication of his book, Nigeria and its Criminal Justice System.
The book allegedly defamed Afe Babalola (SAN), accusing him of corruption in a long-standing land dispute case.
