Barr. Tope Temokun, one of the lawyers representing human rights activist and legal practitioner, Dele Farotimi, has refuted insinuations that his client sent the former presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, to appeal to the octogenarian legal icon, Afe Babalola, SAN, regarding the alleged defamation suit against Farotimi.
Temokun made the clarification during an appearance on the Sunday edition of Channels Television programme, Inside Sources, with Laolu Akande.
In early December, Farotimi was arrested by the Ekiti State police at his Lagos office and transported to Ekiti State for prosecution. The charges stem from his book, Nigeria and its Criminal Justice System, in which he accused Afe Babalola of judicial corruption and procuring a revised Supreme Court judgement.
Farotimi pleaded not guilty to all charges and is currently remanded in prison for two weeks as legal proceedings unfold. He also faces related charges in Abuja and Oyo State.
Temokun, who visited Farotimi in prison on Friday, said the activist denied sending Peter Obi to seek an out-of-court settlement with Babalola.
Temokun added that Farotimi remains in high spirits and is optimistic about overcoming the legal challenges he currently faces in court.
He stated: “I visited Mr. Dele Farotimi in a correctional service in Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State yesterday afternoon.
“The events of the recent days; the visit of Mr. Peter Obi, the (2023) presidential candidate of the Labour Party, to Aare Afe Babalola, his visit to Mr. Dele Farotimi, created some lack of clarity. People are not so clear about some things, people are not clear about what is going on. It is on the basis of this that I had to visit him yesterday, and we sat together and had a good discussion.
“After Peter Obi left Ekiti, the news that filtered the town to the issue of the conditions for release, the issue of apology, the issue of whether Mr. Dele Farotimi is able to do this or that to come out.
“I told him (Farotimi): the reason why I am here is to confirm from you, ‘What do you think should be done?’ The visit of Mr. Peter Obi to you in person and the subsequent visit to Aare Afe Babalola, what do you know about it? What is your message to Aare Afe Babalola? What is your message to the people outside? What is also your message to me as part of your legal team?
“He (Farotimi) said if anybody who is very familiar with his antecedents, with his principles, with his philosophy over time should join anybody to believe that in a matter where he had written a book that he had published and that had been in circulation, that if anybody, somebody who has a brain should join others to believe that he has sent anybody to beg anybody, he said he will be so disappointed in that person.
“He told me categorically that even you, Tope, if you join anybody to believe that I could beg anybody or that I have sent anybody to beg anybody, I will be so disappointed in you.”
Meanwhile, the Coordinator of the Obidients Movement, Dr. Yunusa Tanko, equally at the weekend, spoke in the same direction, saying Peter Obi, was holding discussions with a wide array of Nigerians, including Chief Babalola, on how to improve the country’s electoral system and move the nation forward and probably may have discussed the Dele Farotimi legal issues, not on official capacity, but as a private discussion to resolve the matter.
