Human Rights lawyer, Dele Farotimi, on Sunday, disclosed that he was still faced with four separate lawsuits filed at different states by staffers of the Aare Afe Babalola legal firm.

Farotimi made this statement while speaking during the Toyin Falola Interview series on Sunday.

The statement was made after the Founder of Afe Babalola University, Ado Ekiti, Aare Afe Babalola (SAN), on January 27, agreed to withdraw the cases instituted by him against Barr. Farotimi for allegedly defaming him in a published book.

As a result of Afe Babalola’s petition to the Commissioner of Police in Ekiti State, complaining that Dele defamed him in the book titled ‘Nigeria and its Criminal Justice System,’ the activist lawyer was arrested and arraigned by the Police in two courts in Ekiti.

One was allegations bothering on criminal defamation pending before an Ekiti State Chief Magistrates Court, Ado Ekiti District and the other over alleged cyber-bullying pending before an Ado Ekiti Division of the Federal High Court.

Aare Babalola had announced his withdrawal of the case against Farotimi, citing the intervention of the Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi, and other top traditional rulers and Yoruba leaders.

Babalola however, did not speak on behalf of his associates and partners, who also feel defamed by Farotimi in the same book.

However, featuring on Sunday’s conversation, with the theme: “Politics, Law and Society,” Farotimi stated that while the police had withdrawn the criminal charges against him following the withdrawal of Babalola’s petition, he is still facing four civil libel suits across different states, all filed by members of Babalola’s law office.

“My inability to speak to certain aspects of this issue is borne out of the fact that, despite the discontinuation of the criminal proceeding, I still have four suits that I am aware of, in four different states of the federation, filed by members of the same law office, against my person,” he said.

Farotimi notef that his book was not written in a moment of idle talk or baseless accusations, but rather a well-researched work documenting his experiences and observations about the Nigerian judicial system.

“I did not sit down in a beer parlour; I was not at an officers’ mess; I was not gossiping. It was not idle, cheap talk. I wrote a book,” he declared. 

“Let us deal with veracity. Anybody can go and read and then come back and challenge me with the lie that I have told.”

Dismissing claims that the controversy surrounding his book is a personal battle, Farotimi insisted that what is on trial is not his reputation, but the Nigerian legal system generally.

“This is not a trial of Dele Farotimi. Let nobody make that error. It is a trial of the legal system that we have built as a collective,” he stated.

He reiterated that his controversial book, ‘Nigeria and Its Criminal Justice System’, is not an attack on individuals, particularly legal luminary Aare Afe Babalola, but rather a critique of systemic corruption within the judiciary.

He stressed that his work was written in pursuit of justice, not personal vendetta as being peddled by some individuals.

“Chief Afe Babalola is more than old enough to be my father,” Farotimi said. 

“I did not set out to destroy the man or to tarnish his image; nothing personal. I was writing about the institution of the judiciary.

“Multiple names were mentioned in the book, and offices were mentioned. I did not set out to libel anybody. 

“I simply told the truth of what I saw. All I did was write a book. Maybe we have become too accustomed to lies and allergic to truth, to the point where telling the truth has become a sin.”

According to him, Nigerians must engage with uncomfortable truths if the country is to experience meaningful reform.

 “We have built a system that rewards deception and punishes truth. I am being sued not because I have lied, but because I have dared to speak the truth.”

Farotimi also criticized those who dismissed his book without reading it, labelling their actions as intellectually lazy.

“Ninety per cent of the persons criticizing me for whatever they believe my tactics to have been in writing the book, have not read the book.

“If Nigerians would stop being so philistinic and illiterate, if they would dare to read, there would be no arguments as to the proof of what I have written.”